


'Were There a God-

by Keashell



Category: Overlord - Maruyama Kugane & Related Fandoms
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe, Canon-Typical Violence, Comfort, F/F, F/M, Fantasy, Headcanon, Romance, Self-Indulgent, character driven
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-07
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-12 02:14:54
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 22,722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29252805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keashell/pseuds/Keashell
Summary: A dive into the philosophies of having obscene levels of power. Also romance, self indulgence, shamelessness, and possibly a bit of smut.In this, we follow Akasha, a genie that has been thrust into the new world along with Momonga. A simple animator in her previous life, her conjuration and new genie form will bring an entirely new dynamic to the story.
Comments: 21
Kudos: 41





	1. Journey's End

**Author's Note:**

> [This chapter solely takes place in Yggdrasil, next chapter begins in the New World]
> 
> I read Child of Jörmungandr by Download077, and it made me realize that I'm addicted to reading, and I've been going through withdrawal my whole life because it's so difficult to find prose that are written like brain-candy the way Download077 writes.
> 
> This story, more than anything, is just a way for me to practice my prose writing. You could also consider it a love letter to Download077. Don't dive into this with high expectations, there's no plan here, I'm just writing randomly.

She took a deep breath in anticipation. The most hyped DMMO-RPG game ever, and the reviews were in: the hype was worth it. She didn’t care to spend money on games that  _ might _ be good, she had to be certain the money was well spent. Money didn’t grow in vats, after all.

“Here we go...” She whispered to herself in excitement, and her vision was flooded with UI elements.

There was so much information to go through!

Page after page of races and classes to choose from, and that was only the beginning. After the intensely deep avatar customization, then came the real character customization: where you put your levels.

But she knew what she was doing. A month’s worth of breaking information had already been syphoned from the game by bigger nerds than her. She knew where to start.

She already knew the race she was starting with. Unfortunately, the gold bracers on the arms of her race couldn’t be hidden through any means, even with her choice’s passive ability to freely cast polymorph on themselves. Turning oneself into a squirrel would give you a squirrel with golden bracers.

That’s why one of the priorities would be maxing out her racial levels. The final form got rid of the gold bracers completely, and came with tons of other powerful benefits befitting a heteromorphic race.

If she could just get to that final form, then getting to level 100 would be easy, because her race could pass as a human if not for those bracers.

The second part of her plan involved picking powerful early game classes, sticking with them until level 100, and then purposefully dying to lose levels and replacing them with more optimized classes for late game. Though in truth, she didn’t care for optimization as much as she did for roleplaying and a versatile, adaptable playstyle. Yet another thing her race could help with.

She had even preselected a name for herself. Akasha. 

So cool!

She knew this next part would take the longest. She was a dork when it came to avatar customization, and she spent the next three hours designing her perfect level 1 Genie Fighter, Akasha.

She ended up with her perfect version of sexy, completed with sky blue skin and long, dark blue hair. Even in it’s ponytail, its waves fell smoothly all the way to her bottom. All of this was complemented by her nigh glowing pink eyes.

Nice.

***

Her plans went  _ kaplooey _ all too fast. She underestimated how ruthless and cunning other players could be, and given they all had a month head start on herself, she felt like there was no hope. 

She started speccing into stealth, but higher level players easily saw through that.

She started speccing into mobility and escapes, but higher level players easily had more of it than her.

She started speccing into pure PvP builds, but higher level players beat her with the brute force of their stats.

_ Well fuck. _

Even lower level players could simply team up to fight her.  _ Fucking heteromorphs and their goddamn fucking no penalty deaths and those fucking players and their goddamn fucking BULLSHIT. _

Fine.

You know what?  _ Fine. _

She had an idea.

Trying to play the game while simply surviving PvP wasn’t enough. She had to go on the offensive. All she had to do was get to the Unbound Genie, the final form for Player Genies, and she could disguise herself as a human and THEN play the game.  _ Fuck _ the penalties for killing humans and demihumans, she would do it anyways.

And she did.

And she was good at it.

She took her time, carefully analyzing every area before taking so much as a step. Carefully following low level players for long periods of time, in case high level players were waiting in ambush. They often were, and she never fell for it. Not once.

15 levels into Genie, and she unlocked the Master Genie race, which came with its own awesome benefits. Its travel form was especially useful, as long as no one was around to see her lower half transform into a swirl of blue smoke and mist. She could combine that with the free invisibility granted to her by being a level 15 Genie, and although she was vulnerable while using both together, her caution overcame such obstacles.

But she was making a name for herself. On the forums, there was a rumor going around about the Blue Reaper, a nickname given to a heteromorph that was going around and PKing low level humans and demihumans.

It was only natural. Each time she killed one, she had to hide and wait for the penalties to fade away. There was no room for error, and taking so much time to get this far had given other players enough time to catch on to what was happening.

It was fine, though. She had been roaming specific areas, and now those areas would be flush with high level PKers, which meant that every other area was much safer for heteromorphs.

In that case...

***

It took her a good year to do it all alone, but here she stood. A level 100 Unbound Genie. A heteromorph that had gone from 1-100 all on her own.

They said it couldn’t be done.

They were  _ wrong. _

She spent a while doing dungeons that were soloable, slowly growing her gear and equipment, without ever focusing on a single piece too much in case she died unexpectedly.

Eventually, she made a few friends. Other heteromorphs who had banded together to fight off the hordes of PKers. She formed a guild with them, the PKKers. She thought the name was a bit silly, but it was accurate.

For a while.

Eventually, they started tackling dungeons, and after growing some more, they started tackling raids.

Most of them spent their free time either customizing their equipment and appearance, or killing PKers that were targeting heteromorphs. And she was no exception.

This is how it was now. She finally found her place. A good guild, good friends, and a kind and protective way to spend her time. It was nice.

***

He had to get away. He was almost to the cliff, if he could get there, then his skills could be used to shove some of his pursuers off and he may be able to take the others.

But there were  _ so many. _

Everywhere he went, it seemed, there were humans or demihumans just waiting to kill him for free experience and gear. It wasn’t fair.

He saw one come at the side, a winky-emote appearing above his head. This pursuer didn’t slow down, and instead raced ahead of him to cut him off.

He took a left turn to avoid him, but a wall of flames erupted in his path, knocking him onto his butt.

Just a ruse, of course, to lure one in.

As one of the PKers charged at him with a spear in hand, he deftly deflected the attack and his riposte quickly cut his attacker down.

“You’ll pay for that!” One of the players said, an arrow notched in her bow. It flew, but he raised a shield to block it.

Another attacker used the opportunity to land a solid strike, dealing significant damage.

_ Damn. _

He quickly sliced in their direction, but his sword passed clean through their form as it dissipated in smoke.

An illusion!

“There’s no escape, ugly heteromorph!”

As they all readied their attacks, he knew it was too much. He was cut off from the cliff. His plan was ruined. His skills weren’t enough to deflect this many attacks at once.

He was a goner.

Another wall of fire- no, a  _ ring  _ of fire, completely surrounding him.

Trapping him to rub salt into the wound, huh? Pitiful.

He heard explosions and eruptions. Their attacks were approaching him. There was no way out.

The flames around him dissipated as he sat, defeated.

“You okay?” A voice asked. He looked around, and saw none of his attackers. In their place was this new human. She wore what appeared to be, perhaps, a dancer’s outfit? She looked like a belly dancer straight out of one of those corny Arabian movies. There was a golden scimitar at her side, and runes spiraled down her arms. Outlining her body was a blue glow that slowly faded away; [Mana Shield].

Strange build.

“Why would you save a heteromorph like me?” The penalties a human would get for PKing other humans was no joke. Did she want a reward?

“Oh, sorry. Hold on.” He watched as her skin faded into a light blue color, and a grin-emoji appeared above his head.

A Genie! With no armbands? This was an Unbound Genie!

“I’m Akasha. My guild could use clever heteromorphs like yourself, and I could help you level up. Interested?”

Well that came out of nowhere. This girl had no tact at all, did she?

“What’s in it for you, Akasha?” He was skeptical. There were plentiful illusion spells in the game to make one look like an Unbound Genie.

“A friend and ally.”

She was pretty innocent, huh? So was he.

“Nice to meet you then, Akasha, friendship is surely the way forward! You can call me Touch Me!”

  
  


***

A few years had passed since the PKKers disbanded. News of their disbanding had spread, and what was left of their guild hall after the remaining scattered members divided everything amongst themselves was looted, destroyed, and taken over.

Akasha had long since stopped PKKing. She had lost her motivation to play after all her best friends left. She spent most of her time wandering in areas she thought were pretty and just enjoyed the scenery. She would have been safer if she made a normal human character and done this instead, but she could never give up Akasha. Her heart and soul had gone into this character's design and progress. Giving her up for a safer character would feel like a betrayal.

She was in a familiar area. These badlands were home to a popular raid that her guild did on a weekly basis for its amazing drops. She wanted to take a look inside the raid again, for old time’s sake.

As she approached the entrance area to the cave, she saw another player. She quickly activated invisibility in case it was a PKer.

She continued walking stealthily, seeing another player, and another, and another.

But none of them were humans or demihumans. They were all heteromorphs.

And there were  _ a lot  _ of them.

“We’ve got a spy.” One of them said.

_ Oh shit. _

“Where?”

The observant one, who looked much like an anime ninja, pointed  _ directly _ at Akasha.

_ OH SHIT. _

She quickly undid her invisibility and put her hands above her head. There was no way she was going to be able to take dozens of players on all at once. They were preparing for a raid, which meant every single one of them must have been at or close to max level.

“Akasha?” A familiar voice said.

It was Touch Me.

“Oh, uh, hi.” She said nervously.

“It’s okay everyone! It’s an old friend!”

His voice was familiar, but his gear far exceeded what he wore the last time she saw him. He ran over to her quickly,

“Long time no see!”

“Yeah, it’s been a few years. I see you found a new guild!”

“Indeed! We are Ainz Ooal Gown!”

_ What? _

Ainz Ooal Gown?  _ That _ Ainz Ooal Gown? They had certainly made a name for themselves. She should have guessed Touch Me, the most skilled fighter she had seen in this game, was among their ranks.

“If you would be inclined, I would love to ask the other guild members if you could join! I would love to have an old friend among us!”

She hadn’t thought she would ever find true joy in this game again after her guild had faded away into history. In truth, she wasn’t interested in joining a guild.

She was very interested in playing with Touch Me again though.

_ Heh. _

“Sure, I could shake things up a little.”

Touch Me took a bow and ran back to his guildmates. He was so silly.

They kept looking at her and back at Touch Me, it felt kind of awkward. She wasn’t especially a people person, and this guild certainly had a lot of people.

A good 5 minutes passed before he ran back to her.

“We have decided to test your abilities by allowing you to raid with us. Should you prove yourself worthy, you will be admitted into the guild!”

“Oh, sure. Sounds fun.’

“Then come, we will discuss strategy!”

***

After being admitted into the guild, they all showed her Nazarick. A wondrous tomb that used to be a raid, but was taken over by Ainz Ooal Gown. She was an animator in real life, so she passed all the criteria for joining the guild as their 41st member, and spent much of her time creating custom animations for all of the NPCs.

“ _ Uwah _ , what are you two fighting about?”

“Momonga-san, Herohero-san’s request for Solution is too much. I conceded about her showy design earlier, but now he’s asking for such slutty animations!”

“I-It fits with her character! She uses her bodily charms to lure in her prey, so it only makes sense she would have such an animation!”

“That’s going too far! My animator tools could be blocked if I made an animation so explicit!”

“But it doesn’t even s-show anything!”

“Ahhhh, maybe you can compromise?”

“It shows plenty! Besides, animating boob physics is such a waste of time!”

“No it isn’t! It’s part of her character! She’s a slime!”

“You just want a sexy maid!”

“So what?!”

“ _ Uwah... uh... _ ”

“I’d love to animate some cool slime emotes, why don’t you think of something really unique? The emotes I gave Entoma are top notch and creepy, no slutiness about them.”

“Yeah well she’s a bug!”

“And Solution’s a slime!”

“ _ Guys?” _

“What?!” They both yelled in unison.

“Uh... Why not make something along the same lines, just more tame?”

Akasha and Herohero went silent for a while.

“I guess my idea may have been too wild for the censors.”

“That’s what I was trying to tell you! If I animated something like that, it would ping the devs and I would be banned from animating emotes.”

“Okay, okay, fine... we can work on something. But I still want it to fit her character!”

In the end, Solution was given a simpler emote. She struck a seductive pose, tilting her head down and looking straight at the nearest person with a sly grin as she gently parted the top of her maid uniform, exposing her breasts. Akasha took care to make it as creepy as it was sexy, to try to emphasize that this being was a predator luring in its prey.

Each animation she made was customized to the appearance of a specific avatar, so cloning the animation onto another avatar took too much time and effort to bother with. 

Entoma’s taunting animation made use of her many bug legs, twitching and writhing to strike fear in any arachnaphobe’s heart.

Lupusregina’s animation went for a cutesy approach. She holds up a peace sign, winks an eye, twirls one of her pigtails in her other hand, sticks out her tongue, and tilts to the side all at once for a silly, cliche pose. This animation was special, as it didn’t simply reset to the default idle position afterwards, instead opting to slowly progress back and ending with a quick, sadistic grin before finally idling.

Akasha took special care to give each NPC at least one animation that fit their personality, and was special to them.

“Well what are you thinking then, Nishi-san?”

“I don’t really know, Akasha-san. Narberal’s settings are so aloof, her character doesn’t seem like it would be very animated.”

Akasha circled Narberal slowly, eyeing her up and down. She was one of Akasha’s favorite NPCs, and she had helped Nishikienrai in her initial design. She even gave her ponytail a special animation whenever she turned her head. In truth, if Narberal were real, she would have had a thing for her.

“Then, what about something that totally goes against her character?” Akasha mused. A surprised face emoji appeared above Nishikienrai’s avatar.

“What, like a silly anime dance?!”

“No, that would take a shit ton of time to make. I prefer to stick to around five seconds when making a dedicated animation that can’t carry over to other avatars.

“Aw...”

“She doesn’t have any parts that I could animate specially, either.”

“P-Parts?!”

“Sure, like Entoma’s bug legs, Demiurge’s tail, or Yuri tossing her own head into the air and catching it to put it back on.”

“Oh, those kinds of parts.”

“Eh? Just what did you think I meant?”

“Uh- Uh- like bunny ears!”

“Hm... Well, she’s a doppelganger, I could make an animation that utilizes bunny ears.”

“How about something shy?”

“Shy?”

“Sure, I’d rather stick with something that fits her character anyways, and giving her a sort of timid, shy emote at the very least doesn’t break her aesthetic.”

Akasha touched her digital face with her digital hand in thought.

“You’re a genius, Nishi-san! I think I’ve got just the thing. Give me owner privileges and I’ll get to work immediately.”

They took a while going through all the possibilities, her character, and her powers, and ended up with something that made them happy. After Nishikienrai left, Akasha closed the panel and was left alone in the room with the NPC.

“So uh, just us now, huh?”

The NPC didn’t react at all, but Akasha still felt like she was with a person.

She circled around Narberal some more, admiring her simple and elegant character design. She had done so many times, often bringing Narberal with her when she felt like hanging out in a room alone. Somehow Narberal’s presence just felt right, like it didn’t intrude on Akasha’s solitude.

“I wish I could spend more time here.” She confided in Narberal, even though she was just a series of ones and zeros. “In Yggdrasil, I mean. So much of my time is spent animating. Don’t get me wrong, I mean, I love it, but they demand  _ so much _ of my time, and a lot of it is animating stuff that I don’t really care about.”

She hovered and laid down in the air as she continued her impromptu, one-sided therapy session.

“I wish I could just spend my time animating stuff that I  _ want _ to animate.”

Some more time passed as she complained to Narberal about her job, which slowly transitioned to talking about her life.

“I wish I had some friends back home. I have my boyfriend, but our schedules don’t align at all. All of my friends are here. I even consider you my friend.” 

_ Sigh. _

“That’s weird, huh? I’m probably going crazy, but who isn’t back home? Things are fucked up over there, you know? It’s much better here.”

An awkward silence filled the air. She had to get to work on Narberal’s new emote animation. They had decided she would take a timid, reserved pose as she looked down and blushed. She added conditional animations too: any parts that Narberal had grown would wiggle and shudder a little. The crux that made it special was that during this timid pose, Narberal would hook her right foot behind her left and put her hands behind her back, then gently twist back and forth for a moment before returning to idle.

Nishikienrai loved it, and they sat there and made Narberal do it over and over, praising her for her cuteness.

In the end, a piece of Akasha was in most of the major NPCs of Nazarick, and that made it all the more difficult a few years later, when the guild had faded into obscurity.

She had now gone through not one, but  _ two  _ amazing guilds dying.

She was done.

She stopped playing Yggdrasil for a while, it just made her sad.

Every few months, she would log back on and see Momonga doing some sort of maintenance or grinding. She started logging in on a bi-weekly basis to just chat and catch up with Momonga. He admitted that he looked forward to her logging on and chatting. It was like a cherished shard of what their guild once used to be.

Eventually, to no one’s surprise, especially yours, the server shutdown was announced.

Akasha and Momonga agreed to stay logged in together until the very end.

They had met with Herohero who didn’t stay on for very long, and Momonga decided to be in the throne room at the end. Akasha had said she would join him, but wanted to do a few things first.

One last time, she wanted to look at what she had made with this character. How far she had come.

She held up her scarf, [Orate Banner], and inspected it. It was long and wide, black on one side and blood red on the other. It made her feel like a dragon. In addition to granting an armor rating equivalent to that of high-tier spaulders without the weight cost, it limited the amount of damage she could take from any one source to 20% of her maximum health. Truly the bane of any assassin looking to quickly remove her, as a backline player, from the fight.

She removed her mask. Its shape was simple, but its design was hypnotic. It was like an infinite number of black mirrors reflecting onto themselves, and as you moved, the reflection’s epicentre seemed to move with you. It inflicted several confusion and mind-based debuffs on anyone facing it, in addition to granting the wearer immunity to such effects and some decent magical resistances. This [Infinity Reflection Mask] was her pride and joy, and her most powerful item.

Her tunic, [Cataclysm Tunic], was black like the scarf, and had a tabard on the front and the back that hung almost to the floor. In addition to the deceivingly high levels of protection that it offered, it granted her significant mana regeneration, and a passive buff that empowered the damage of her spells as her health decreased.

Her black gloves ran up her arms, and the knuckles had small gold plates on them. The [Reckoners], she named them, allowed her to channel her magical power into her unarmed attacks. While most of her levels were in caster classes, specifically the types that summon creatures and create objects, she had invested some levels into Monk as well so that she wasn’t useless in close combat. These gloves allowed her to combine her magic casting ability with her Monk attacks, catching many close-ranged foes off guard who did not expect to meet such resistance in hand-to-hand combat against a magic caster.

Finally, her choker, [Catalyzer]. It was a simple black choker, but a small pink crystal hung from its front. It was designed to go with her special job class, Catalyst, and increased the power of anything she summoned or created.

“All this work is about to go to waste, huh?” She mumbled, putting her equipment back on after inspecting it thoroughly.

She made her way to the throne room and noticed Momonga reading through an NPC’s settings.

“The throne suits you. I wish we had had a chance to really show it off.”

“You think?” He almost sounded timid, the way shy people are when taking a compliment.

“Your staff, too.”

“ _ Our _ staff. This is the staff of our guild, sorry for selfishly moving it without permission.”

“It’ll be fine for today.”

“Yeah.”

“I remember making some animations for that one, uh...”

“Albedo.”

“Right! Here, I can show you the emote I made for her.”

“ _ Uwah,  _ hold on...”

“Huh?”

“Come look at this.”

She leaned over beside Momonga and read the last line of Albedo’s settings.

_ Incidentally, she is a slut. _

“Oh my.”

“We could change it, you know, with this...” He held up the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown majestically.

“Did you have something in mind?”

“Mm...”

The originally line disappeared, replaced by

_ She is in love with _

“Eh?!”

“Wh-What!”

“That’s cringe, Momonga-san.”

Momonga lifted his hands up to his face in embarrassment.

“W-Well what do you think, then?”

“We want to honor what Tabula-san originally intended for her, but just make it less...  _ that. _ Why not... ‘She is a hopeless romantic’. That’s got more depth than the original line, and it isn’t cringe.”

“Right, I don’t know what I was thinking,” He said with a nervous laugh, and saved the new settings.

“Want to see her emote now?”

“Yeah!”

After some fiddling, Albedo floated into the air about a foot, her wings flapping and her clothes and hair billowing in a wind that wasn’t there. She curtsied while floating there, and then gentle floated back to the ground. There were even windy sound effects and a sound effect for when she landed.

“That was great!”

“Thanks, that one actually took me the longest out of any emote. It was a lot of fun though.”

“The longest? All she did was curtsy though, would something like Shalltear’s twirl with her umbrella take longer?”

“No, it took a lot of time to animated all the billowing effects and stuff. Her animation may not be the most extravagant, but it’s definitely the most intricate.”

“I see. Thank you for all your hard work.” His tone had suddenly turned grim and formal. She knew why.

She took a bow to Momonga, and the atmosphere shifted almost to grief.

“My pleasure.” She said, feeling pressure begin to well up in her face. She was on the precipice of releasing tears.

Akasha used her racial ability to create a makeshift throne of her own right next to his, and they sat together for a while in silence, each taking in the throne room one last time.

Akasha broke the silence for a send off.

“This weekend, let’s gather for whiskey and cigars.”

“What? Really? I don’t have that kind of money...”

“It’s okay, my treat. Let’s celebrate what we had here.”

“...Yeah.”

“It was fun, Momonga-san.”

“Yeah. It was.”

She closed her eyes and awaited the end.

And it came.

Or so they thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! It'd be great if you left a comment, they inspire me to keep writing! <3


	2. High Expectations

Were they leaving too? Somehow, this all felt so final. The way the Supreme Ones sat in their majestic thrones, it was as if they planned to never return.

What could she do? What did Akasha mean “It was fun”? There had to be something Albedo could do to placate this situation. Whiskey and cigars, Akasha had mentioned that. Perhaps if she could acquire some, the Supreme Beings would stay for a bit longer.

Alas, she was bound by their orders and their will. She had stood and guarded the unused throne room for as long as she could remember. Perhaps her entire life? It was what she was created for, and nothing could have brought her more pleasure than to serve the Supreme Beings. She did not mind in the least.

She perhaps would have enjoyed a drop of agency. The freedom to move around the throne room at her will, rather than stand as an unmoving sentry. The freedom to bask in the glory of all the Supreme Beings had created in this magnificent, divine room.

Yet, the Supreme Beings were supreme for a reason. Her position likely had thousands, nay, millions of calculations and foresight behind it, such that it was determined that this was where she must stand for maximum effectiveness.

She bathed herself in that knowledge. The knowledge that everything about her, down to where she stood, had been calculated by the wisdom and intelligence of the Supreme Beings. It brought her a pleasure that mere mortals could only dream of.

Yet here were the last two remaining Supreme Beings, sat upon their thrones as if to say goodbye.

She had no choice but to oblige. No, even if she did have a choice, she would have chosen to oblige. She would not dare to assume to know better than the Supreme Beings.

Though, there was a change. A sudden shift in the air around her. They had granted her that which she longed for: agency. She felt herself grow infinitely in an instant, and had she decided to, she could go and do whatever she desired.

She desired nothing more than to continue serving. She stayed where she was, where they had put her, and reveled in the gift of agency they had bestowed upon her. She was no longer bound to obey, for now, she was  _ allowed _ to obey. She could choose to obey, and that was a pleasure even she had never known.

“Momonga-san?”

Ah, the wondrous voice of her mistress, Lady Akasha. Like a breeze carrying the fragrance of a cherry blossom tree, Akasha’s voice caressed her ears and gave meaning to life.

She peeked up, longing to gaze upon her masters, and noticed Akasha’s mask was on the floor beside her, instead of being worn upon her face.

What should she do? Should she rise and lift that mask, offering it back to her Lady?

No, Akasha would not remove her mask for no reason. If she wanted it to be there on the floor, then there must have been a reason for it. Anyways, even if she tried to pick it up, she would have had to be careful as to not lay her eyes upon it, lest she become hypnotized by its immense power.

In fact, this was a grand opportunity to gaze fully upon her mistress, where normally one would have to avert their eyes lest be caught in the hypnotic gaze of that mask.

And she did.

She selfishly engorged herself upon the form of her Blue Mistress, fully appreciating her beauty and majesty.

“...Huh?” Both Supreme Beings said in unison.

What was going on? Was something the matter? Her mind began racing, looking for any possible problem around her that she could help her masters solve.

Yet she found nothing. To her delight, Momonga, the King of Darkness, the ultimate leader of the Supreme Beings, graced her ears with his own beautiful voice.

Where Akasha’s was a gentle fragrance blowing warmly in the breeze, Momonga’s was the smell of rain, the sound of a storm at sea, of a quake rupturing the earth, of lightning cracking the sky.

“I assume you’ve already tried and failed with the [GM Call] function, right?”

Akasha? Failing at something? Albedo did not dare speak, for if the Supreme Beings were having trouble with something, then it was a task that was beyond her comprehension. In this case, she would only ever be useful to them as a tool, not as counsel.

“Yeah. Momonga-san, our... our voices...”

So Lady Akasha thought so too, that their precious voices were what gave meaning to life. Albedo couldn’t agree more.

“Indeed. It would seem we have found ourselves in unusual circumstances. We should begin running tests to determine the nature and gravity of our situation.”

Unusual circumstances? If something was causing a Supreme Being to question their circumstances, then of course tests would have to be run. What had her Great Ruler of the Supreme Beings foreseen? Truly, his vigilance and intelligence was unbound by the laws of the universe.

No, perhaps his intellect was a very law itself. A cap, a ceiling on the capacity for sentient thought.

It was time for her to act. Whatever tests the Great Momonga had in mind, she knew her place was to ensure they were done with the efficiency deserving of the Supreme Beings. She bowed her head before she spoke.

“How may we assist, Supreme Ones?”

***

Akasha knew she would have to head straight to bed now. She opened her eyes and began to remove her Dive equipment, she needed to get a glass of water, brush her teeth, and-

Hold on...

She was still in the throne room with Momonga. She looked around, confused at-

Nope, she wasn’t confused anymore. A wave of clarity swept over her as soon as confusion began to take hold of her mind.

She needed information. For some reason, she was unable to remove her dive gear. Attempting to bring up the menu or contact a gm also failed.

Noted.

The mask was in the way.

The mask was in the way? Hold on, in the way of what? Didn’t-

Doesn’t matter. Another wave of clarity. She didn’t have the why, and there was no point in speculating until she gathered more information. For now, the information she had was that she would see more clearly without the mask on, and she wanted her face to be free of it, so she removed it.

She felt it in her hand as if it were real, not just ones and zeros. It was fascinating. She looked into it and found herself falling into its hypnotic patterns. It was like she stood up too fast and got dizzy, but she was having trouble pulling her eyes away from the infinite reflections of the mask.

She eventually did, and shook her head from the daze, placing the mask on the floor beside her so she wouldn’t fall once more into its depths.

“Momonga-san?”

“...Huh?” They said in unison. It wasn’t the situation that forced that confusion out of them, it was Akasha’s voice.

It was different.

Her entire life, her voice had been common and dull, easily missed behind any other noise, like the middle C on a cheap piano played all on its own.

The voice that just came out of her was different. It was smooth and melodic, like an orchestra gracefully erupting in wondrous harmony.

“I assume you’ve already tried and failed with the [GM Call] function, right?”

Hold on, Momonga’s voice was different too. It was deeper and regal. That wasn’t all, even his tone and form were different, it was like he was a different person entirely.

“Yeah. Momonga-san, our... our voices...”

Confusion began to invade her mind again, and this time it was not broken by a wave of clarity. There was something comforting about being allowed to feel confusion in this situation.

“Indeed. It would seem we have found ourselves in unusual circumstances. We should begin running tests to determine the nature and gravity of our situation.”

Wow, that was a lot. He was really diving into this... whatever  _ this _ was.

“How may we assist, Supreme Ones?”

Momonga and Akasha looked in the direction of the voice, but all they saw were the NPCs all bowing before them. There was no one in here with them.

As if sensing their hesitation, the NPC Albedo lifted her head to look at them.

She wasn’t just looking at them, no, she was... watching them. Her eyes flitted to them as her face contorted with concern.

That was not an emote Akasha made for her, or any other emote she had seen.

What the hell?

There was hesitation again, which Albedo noticed and folded her hands over her heart.

“Please, allow your faithful servants to aid you in any way we can!”

“Albedo...?” Akasha asked, thoroughly unsure about anything anymore.

Albedo was just an NPC in a game. This was more uncanny that a pet suddenly turning to you and speaking. This was like being in a VR game, and suddenly the NPCs around you start acting like people, and you no longer feel your real body.

It was a traumatizing level of weird.

“Yes, my lady? Anything I can do for you, simply say the word and I will do so!” A wide smile split Albedo’s face as her eyes widened. She was acting hysterical, almost desperate to act upon her ability to speak and behave.

“Would you mind guarding the entrance to the throne room? Momonga-san and I must discuss something in private.”

“Of course, my lady, it would be my pleasure.”

With that, Albedo took her leave and began walking out of the throne room. As Sebas and the maids began to follow her, Momonga spoke up.

“Sebas... confirm the surroundings of Nazarick. Bring Entoma with you, and do not engage in combat or be discovered.”

“Yes, my lord.” With a bow, they all left.

“I presume you wanted to discuss the situation.”

“Yeah,” Akasha rose to her feet and paced back and forth as Momonga sat calmly, “I’ve got about a million possibilities going through my head right now. My mind is a jumble.”

“I understand. My head feels the same way when I think about it, but a calmness sweeps over me and allows me to assess the situation methodically. The same does not happen to you?”

“Uh, no, I guess not. It did for a second at first, but not since I took off my mask.”

“It would stand to reason the [Infinity Reflection Mask]’s buffs that grant you immunity to mind-altering effects were responsible for your momentary bouts of clarity. In my case, it is likely the fact that I am undead.”

“Whoa, hold on, we don’t know if you’re undead or not. This could still be a dive game, or some other type of simulation that utilizes dive technology. This world suddenly becoming real was only one of the dozens of core possibilities.”

“You are correct, though the evidence so far points to us being in a new world, and that these are now our bodies.”

“Okay, well if this is all somehow real, that still wouldn’t confirm that it’s new. If this is a world of magic and fantasy, wouldn’t it be possible that this is who we’ve always been, and our memories have been altered?”

“An interesting hypothesis, but I doubt it. If this world is indeed the fantasy setting we are familiar with, then technology would not have progressed to the level we were familiar with on earth. If our memories of earth were fake, then we would expect the technology of our assaulter to be at least on par with those memories.”

“If that’s the case, what if somehow our human souls and memories have somehow taken over these bodies?”

“A frightening proposition. If that were the case, we would need to be extraordinarily careful with such a speculation.”

“Eh? How come?”

“If the NPCs of Nazarick are loyal to the creatures that used to inhabit these bodies, then finding out that a couple of humans have taken over their masters would not bode well for us.”

“...Shit.”

“We’re still in the speculation phase, and I don’t think we should rule out the possibility that this is still a game or simulation of some kind that utilizes dive technology.”

“But, that’s kidnapping! Who would go so far, and why us?”

“The answer for why they would pick me is obvious.” He stopped talking, and Akasha knew why. What a sad sentiment. She had a life back on earth; a family, a boyfriend, friends. Momonga had nothing.

It’s a lose-lose situation. Either they were kidnapped and no one will come looking for Momonga, or they’ve been transported to some new world, and Akasha will have lost all of her loved ones.

“Hey, even if we have been kidnapped, that’s a hefty crime. We’ll be found for sure.”

“Would you do me a favor?”

“Uh... depends?”

“Gather the guardians, except Gargantua and Victim, to the Colosseum on the Sixth Floor in one hour. I’d like to have a meeting with them there.” His voice grew hesitant and embarrassed. “And uh, send Albedo in here.”

“Hm? She’s one of the Guardians too, I’ll just send her to the Colosseum straight away.”

“Well, there’s a test I would like to run to gather information.”

“Oh, yeah no problem. What’s the test?”

Momonga turned his head away and scratched at his face nervously,

“Well- in Yggdrasil, certain actions weren’t allowed, and uh...”

“No.”

“ _ Uwah... _ ”

“I get that we should test that, but we don’t need Albedo for it. You’re not going to molest someone in the name of science. Just touch yourself and see if that works.”

Momonga scratched his head nervously again,

“Well... you see...” A green light shone around him as his demeanor suddenly changed. So that’s what it looked like; his undead nature taking over his human nature.

“I don’t have anything to touch.”

“Oh right...” Akasha scratched her head guiltily, “I guess I should do it then. I’ll find somewhere private and try it, and give you the results at the meeting.”

“Ah... right.”

Akasha paused to analyze what she had just said. She was discussing touching herself so casually, she’d never been that confident or assertive before. What the hell was wrong with her?

As Akasha was walking away, she stopped and momentarily turned to Momonga,

“No molesting.”

“Go away!”

***

She always thought the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick was a cold place, and now that she could feel the air wandering through these labyrinthian halls, she knew she was right. The air was crisp and sharp on her face, though luckily the outfit she had on covered her completely and kept the rest of her body warm.

Making her way to the Sixth Floor, she turned the corner and looked around quickly. No one was there. This was her chance.

She reached up to grab her own breast to test for R-rated material.

Damn, it was big.

She groped herself plenty on earth, and this certainly was not a breast she was familiar with, but she sure enjoyed it. The sensation itself was more intense than usual, as if this body had more receptors in the breasts. It was more pleasurable, and it helped her state of mind that it was such a good one to grope. She reached her other hand up to her other breast and blushed as she kneaded them. The feeling was wondrous.

She stopped and leaned against a wall to keep going, she didn’t want to turn the corner and have to stop. She was seeing stars as a warm, fuzzy sensation flooded her consciousness.

A noise broke her out of the daze and she fearfully looked around. There was no one. What had that noise been?

“Weird.” She said, and then realized the noise had been her own moan. She laughed at herself. How ridiculous.

There would be plenty of time for this later, she needed to get to the Colosseum. The test was positive.

***

It was bigger than she remembered. Perhaps that was because it was all real now. That’s the assumption she decided to work under as she made her way towards Momonga and the dark elf twins. For her, it was the worst case scenario.

One of the twins looked at her, the boy, smiling and waving.

No wait, that was the girl. Right, she forgot about that.

Momonga turned to see her and she simply gave him a thumbs up, hoping he understood she meant the test had been positive. He nodded, so she figured he got it.

“Akasha-sama!” The dark elf girl was so cheerful, it almost was enough to wash away the social anxiety.

“H-Hello, Akasha-sama! It’s nice to see you!” The boy took a bow. Until now, she hadn’t considered this world real, but now that that was the assumption, it felt weird for people to bow to her like she was some sort of god. She didn’t like it.

“Glad you could make it, Akasha-san. I was just giving Aura and Mare some water. They defeated a Primal Fire Elemental I summoned with the Staff, it was quite the spectacle.” The girl laughed triumphantly while the boy laughed nervously, unable to take compliments very well. They believed Momonga’s words just now to only mean what he had said on the surface, but Akasha was sincerely impressed at how many layers were there.

The first was that he knew she didn’t remember their names, so he gave them to her. Dammit... if only he had thought to point to them as he said their names, she still didn’t know which was which!

The second was that magic worked in this world. Not only that, but magic items still worked as intended.

The third was that he could summon and do powerful things. They were far more powerful than they were as humans.

The fourth was that the NPCs of Nazarick, who were now all living creatures, were also powerful.

The final layer was horrifying. He was suggesting that they should fear the NPCs turning on them, for they may overpower them.

Wait, there was one more layer. No, perhaps this wasn’t a layer in what he said, it was simply a conclusion she came to on her own based on the information he had just conveyed.

They needed to keep up an act. Whatever the NPCs thought of them, that’s how they had to behave. The consequences of not adhering to the beliefs of the NPCs could be dire.

“Well done, you two.” She tried her best to sound like speaking to them was a normal thing for her to do, but the uncertainty within her oozed out of her words.

It didn’t seem to matter. The girl seemed ecstatic at her praise.

“Thank you so much, Akasha-sama!”

“Th-thank you very much!” They both bowed again. This would take some getting used to.

Their personalities were so incredibly distinct. She remembered their settings, and they seemed to abide by them to the letter. Did all the NPCs follow their original programming so fully?

A terrifying thought bled into her mind:  _ ‘Are they all evil?’ _ The idea shook her to her core as she began to freeze up in terror.

“Cocytus, thank you for coming.” It was like Momonga read her fear and tried to draw attention away from it. If he could read it, would the NPCs be able to? Would she be able to hide it? Especially from that one...

“It. Is. Only. Natural. To. Come. When. My. Masters. Call. You. Honor. Me.”

“Is that so?”

“But of course, Momonga-sama! Who in the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick wouldn’t come when you called?”

“It is as Aura says.” The terrifyingly confident voice came from behind Akasha. She turned to see Albedo and Demiurge walking together. Demiurge continued, “We exist to serve.” Though his diamond eyes knew no focus, she could feel his non-existent pupils on her, watching her, reading her, analyzing her every action as if looking for the slightest mistake.

At least she now knew which twin was Aura.

There was something else. Until now, she had considered her and the dark elves to be of a relatively normal height, and Momonga and Cocytus were just giants. She designed Akasha to be short, yes, but to actually now be that short in a real life scenario was something entirely different. She had to look up as Albedo and Demiurge approached, and she realized just how much they dwarfed her. If she had known this all would have been made real, she wouldn’t have stuck her character way down at five measly feet. At least she would be taller than Shalltear.

“Oh my, looks like I made it just in time.” Speak of the vampire. The vampire girl emerged from the portal with a dapper smile and a royal demeanor, stepping gracefully to be with the other Floor Guardians.

***

Aw jeez, not only were there two Supreme Beings, but now almost all the other Floor Guardians were here too! He could scarcely recall ever being in a situation like this! His social anxiety was through the roof, and it didn’t help that they all seemed to be so comfortable with it, treating it like they’d done it all a thousand times before!

All he had to do was follow Aura’s lead. If he did that, he could make it through this without making a total idiot of himself.

Ahh... but the Supreme Beings are here. Lord Momonga  _ and  _ Lady Akasha! He really had to decide between focusing on his sister’s lead or gazing at their grace and majesty? What kind of choice was that?!

Akasha stepped to Momonga, AHH they were standing together! What a treat! Momonga looked like he would have been more scary, but he turned out to be so nice! Akasha had even praised them, she was so cool! It was weird that she wasn’t wearing a mask, but that just meant he got to look at her beautiful face!

He would be lying if he said he wouldn’t rather stand next to Akasha though. They were both avatars of perfection, but Akasha smelled nice, was less intimidating, and he didn’t have to look up quite so far to see her face. She just felt more gentle and comforting, that’s all.

“Now, everyone. To our Supreme Leaders, the Ritual of Fidelity!”

Oh, he knew what to do here! He bowed gracefully with the other Guardians.

Nailed it!

They all took their pledges, and he didn’t miss a beat. He was so in tune with everyone now, he felt like he was earning his position as Floor Guardian.

He watched in glee as Lord Momonga led the meeting and informed them of their precarious, mysterious situation.

***

“Lastly, Shalltear, what kind of person am I to you?”

What? What kind of blunt question was that? Akasha riddled her brain to find justification for asking it in such a crude manner, but she was coming up empty. She understood the purpose, they had to know how they were meant to behave around these NPCs to not arouse suspicion, but it just seemed like such a random question to ask in a group setting like this.

She watched awkwardly as each of the Floor Guardians gave their individual praise to Momonga. She would have crumbled under such praise, but he was handling it like a champ.

Did he like it or something?

“Very well. Akasha-san, meet me in my bedchambers when you’re ready.”

_ What? _

No, she knew Momonga well enough to not jump to those conclusions. Still, it was so direct. Was this really still Momonga?

She pondered it as he teleported away.

Curious, she hadn’t even tried using magic yet. It felt like he was leaving her in the dust with how quickly he was tackling their situation.

She looked out to the Floor Guardians, who all remained bowing. Ah shit, they were bowing to her, weren’t they? She had to get out of here.

She searched within herself, and somehow found what she was seeking. It was her magic, her mana. It felt bizarre. It was incomparable, like a... uh...

She could feel it, anyways. She could even feel her spells just waiting to be used.

“[Gate]” She didn’t know if she had to say it outloud, but that’s what they did in anime, so she figured she might as well start with that. The usage was surprisingly simple, she just thought of where she wanted to be and the gate appeared there. She stepped through without hesitation, desperate to get away from all of this unearned praise.

As she stepped into her room, a thought occurred to her. If they’re going to praise her religiously anyways, maybe ethically she had to justify that praise. Give them an actual reason to praise her. She’d have to go the extra mile, but she wasn’t about to take such attention lying down.

It didn’t take her long to shake off those thoughts and scan her room. It was smaller than the other guild members’ rooms, by her own design, though still extravagant. The bed was massive, the sheets and tapestries on it a soothing blue. Anything you could want in a bedroom was here, hell, it was bigger and nicer than her old apartment back on earth. A desk and chair, a living area with two couches facing eachother and a coffee table in the middle, a dresser and mirror, and a luxury bathroom. It was magnificent.

She didn’t have a lot of time, so she steeled herself. She just needed a breather. 5 minutes to herself to just vent to her own reflection.

She made her way to the mirror and audibly gasped when she saw herself. It wasn’t like seeing her avatar in a mirror, it was like she was looking at herself.

And she was hot.

She’d always swung both ways, and she designed this avatar per her personal tastes, so it made sense, but still... it was weird. It felt wrong. This wasn’t her.

This flat stomach, this long gorgeous hair, these delicious curves, this flawless skin, she wanted to strip right then and there to get a good look, but she took her time. She enjoyed the process. It was like she was teasing herself - no, that’s exactly what she was doing.

The scarf unravelled gracefully from around her neck and fell to the floor. Her tabard, the dark undershirt, her boots, her pants, she took her time weaving and dancing her way out of them as she watched the show she put on for herself in the mirror.

The shame kept popping up. She was attracted to her own form. Every time it popped up, she shoved it back down to keep watching. Had this been a different person, this would have been a dream come true, so she kept trying to pretend that was the case. She couldn’t stay in the state of mind. Again, the shame popped up, the guilt, the disgust with herself, and she shoved it down once more as she stood and stared at herself in nothing but her pink underwear.

She blushed from arousal. The blush stayed on her face, but its cause changed every moment. Arousal, shame, disgust, hatred for herself, timidness, relief. It was a vortex of emotions that she didn’t have the capacity to handle.

Maybe she should have just gone straight to Momonga’s room? Then she wouldn’t have to go through this. She wouldn’t have to hate herself.

No, if they were to be stuck here, this moment would come eventually.

Tears welled up in her eyes and she tried to hold them back, but they escaped and fled down her cheeks. She rubbed her eyes with her hands. This was ridiculous. Why was she crying? Where were these tears coming from?

Ah, the better question: what was there to not cry about? Everything about her situation was tear-worthy. Every thought and feeling in her head would have ended in tears, so she just accepted it. She fell to the floor on her knees and wept into her hands.

Her family. Her friends. Her lover. All of them... she had left them behind. What happened to her body? Would someone come looking for her, and everyone in her life that she loved would find her corpse hooked up to the Dive Gear?

She wept for their loss, for the grief they would feel with her gone. She wept in happiness that she finally felt beautiful, and that someone beautiful had put on a show for her. She wept in disgust that she was so attracted to herself. She wept in hatred that she had such feelings and was so weak. She wept in frustration that she was so helpless to do anything about any of this. She even wept in disappointment at herself for breaking down so soon. They hadn’t been here a full day and she was already broken.

She just wanted a hug.

***Thud* *Thud***

Someone was knocking at her door. How long had she been in here? Did they know she was here already? How?

“H-Hold on!”

She raced to just put on her black undershirt and dark pants before opening the door. There she saw two familiar faces: Narberal Gamma and Lupusregina Beta, the latter of which had a wide smile on. They wore normal maid uniforms and both bowed before Narberal spoke for them,

“Akasha-sama, at the behest of Albedo-sama, we have been assigned the sacred task of escorting you for the time being. We will protect you with our lives.”

“Here? In Nazarick? Is that necessary?” Were they already suspicious of Akasha? Had she already made a fatal error, and this was a means to confirm their suspicions?

“Yes, your safety is our top priority.”

“I see. Then, you may enter.” She couldn’t show any signs of weakness. The red in her eyes from her crying, how would she explain that?

“Into- Into your chambers, Akasha-sama?” Narberal’s calm expression broke subtly, but visibly.

“Mhm.” She had nothing to hide; that’s what she needed to convey.

Lupusregina’s smile turned to a tease as she nudged Narberal forward,

“Go on, Nar-chan! I’ll keep guard out here, you guard her in there.” Narberal turned quickly with shock on her face, her ponytail flailing through the air.

“But-”

“Ohh? Are you denying Akasha-sama’s request?”

When Narberal turned back to Akasha, her face was bright red. She closed her eyes and put her calm face back on, but the blush did not fade.

***

Narberal entered the room and, closing the door behind her, immediately spotted the clothing her Lady had left on the floor. She could still feel the redness in her face that would not go away no matter how hard she tried. It couldn’t be helped, she was in Lady Akasha’s private room, after all. She just had to play it cool. She needed to find something to do, something to keep her busy.

“Shall I get those?” She asked, pointing to the clothes on the floor, she dared not look into her Lady’s face lest she be overcome with... what, exactly? She wasn’t sure. Maybe it was just a reflex to not look at Lady Akasha’s face because she normally wore that mask.

“No, I’m putting them back on soon. I just wanted to take a break.”

Narberal simply bowed and back away to the door, readying herself for anything.

Would Lady Akasha tell her of her old world again? Talk to her about the problems she faced in the divine realm of the Supreme Beings? She selfishly desired such interaction, but there were occasions where she was not graced with such a conversation even when alone with Lady Akasha like this.

Lady Akasha had once told her that she liked this world even more than the Realm of the Supreme Beings. She desired to the core of her soul to be at least a partial factor in that claim. She hoped that she was partially responsible for Lady Akasha’s desire to stay here.

“Thanks though.” She had been bestowed with the gratitude of a Supreme Being. She would never forget this day.

“Of course.” She bowed.

“You okay?” She finally looked up into her Lady’s face. She was a beauty that this world was unworthy of.

“I am well. You need not trouble yourself with the condition of one such as myself.”

“I’ve heard that one before. Narberal, it doesn’t trouble me to be considerate of how others feel.”

“Understood.”

“Was there- huh? Hold on.” Lady Akasha suddenly looked down and put her fingers to her ear, “Momonga-san?” A few moments passed before she spoke again.

“Narberal, I hope you and Lupusregina will accompany me to Momonga-san’s chambers.”

“Yes.”

Lady Akasha seemed to ponder something, and as she slipped back into her clothes, she asked calmly,

“What do you think of me, Narberal?”

“You are perfection incarnate, Akasha-sama.” She had averted her eyes as Lady Akasha changed, but she could still hear a small laugh under her breath. Was that not the answer she was seeking? Had Narberal messed up?

“I hope I can live up to that.”

“It is simply a fact. Regardless of what you do, it will be perfect.”

  
“...I hope I can live up to  _ that _ .”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I only proofread it like twice, hopefully it came out alright. Thanks for reading! Leave some feedback in the comments! <3


	3. Discovery

“Enter.” Momonga’s new voice boomed from behind his chamber’s door. Akasha nodded at Narberal to stay out, and ventured inside. Momonga was sitting at his desk, poring over a notebook.

“It’s time we go over all the information we’ve gathered and assess our situation.”

“Ah, right.”

“One of the most notable pieces of information I’ve gathered is that I have become an undead, both physically and mentally. I feel no need for sustenance or rest, and any strong emotions I have are hampered.” Akasha frowned at the prospect of not being able to feel strongly about anything.

“Wow, I’m sorry. It must-”

“It’s fine. I don’t mind. Moreover, I’m curious about what being a genie is like.”

“Oh, uh, it’s strange. I don’t think my emotions have been affected too much. If anything, I guess you could say they lean towards hedonism now. All of my normal desires are seriously ramped up.”

“Such as?”

“Uh, food, for example. I’ve been thinking about it more and more, like I really crave delicious things.”

“Hm. So you feel hunger.”

“I don’t know if I’d call it hunger. It’s not a physical thing, I guess you could call it a bad case of the munchies. We haven’t been here too long and I’m already seriously craving food.”

“If it’s not physical, I doubt a [Ring of Sustenance] will suffice.”

“Worth a shot, isn’t it?”

Momonga simply nodded.

“The NPCs appear to be supremely loyal to us.”

“I guess it’s only fitting, since they keep calling us Supreme Beings.”

“What worries me is the possibility that their loyalty will falter.”

“Yeah, I understood the double meaning when you told me about that earlier.”

“Double meaning?”

“Sure, when you were talking about Aura and Mare’s fight with your Primal Fire Elemental.”

“Uh- Yes, of course. That time.”

“They sent Narberal and Lupusregina to my room to escort me, but I was worried they were already suspicious of me and had sent them to spy on me.”

“No, I don’t think they would make a move like that.”

Akasha tilted her head,

“How can you be so sure?”

“For the time being, we’re the last two of their ‘Supreme Beings’. From my observations, they have no room in their hearts to be suspicious of us. At least not yet.”

She crossed her arms, still uncertain.

“I guess I’ll take your word for it. But I have to say, Momonga-san... I’m scared.” She finally made her way to the chair across from him and sat down, visibly shaking. Her eyes were wide and her fear was palpable.

“They scare the shit out of me, Momonga-san. We designed this massive evil underground dungeon for roleplay purposes, and it was all fun and games, but it’s fucking terrifying.”

“I can-”

“And all the NPCs are real now.”

“We don’t know-”

“So many of them are evil, sadistic monsters, and they’re real, and it’s our fault for making them like that.”

“Hm.” Akasha put her elbows on the table in front of her and grabbed her head, staring down at the polished wooden surface.

“Back at the Colosseum, I felt like Demiurge was staring straight through me, like he knew I was just some imposter. I’ve never been that scared before. And then they sent two battle maids to my room to watch me...” Tears began streaming down her cheeks. She hated herself for crying yet again in such a short period of time. “This fear is going to drive me crazy. What the fuck are we doing here? How the hell did this happen?”

As much as Momonga understood her plight, he couldn’t empathize with it. To him, this spelled a bright new future. One where he could be happy and content with his life, as opposed to the awful hellscape he left behind back on earth. It was different for Akasha. There was plenty she left behind.

“As an undead, I cannot feel fear, so I don’t envy you for that. That said, there’s nothing we can do about our situation, there’s no reason yet to believe it’s permanent, we haven’t determined one hundred percent that this is definitely a new, real world, and beyond all that, breaking down in fear will not help.” He rested his chin on his boney fingers, staring right at her with his empty sockets. “If you truly want to figure out what’s going on and how to get back to earth, you’ll need to pull yourself together first.”

She covered her face with her hands, and spoke with a muffled voice,

“...Right.”

“I’m no psychologist, but perhaps the first thing you need to do is focus on your cravings. I’m sure satisfying them will make you feel better. You said you had food cravings before, was there anything else?”

He waited patiently for her response as she wiped her hands down her face in an attempt to gather herself.

“Y-Yeah. Uh, it feels like I want to drink alcohol. There are a few other cravings that I don’t recognize and don’t know how to fulfill.”

“That’s fine. Focus on listing your cravings that you recognize, no point focusing on cravings that you don’t know how to satisfy.”

“Okay... Um... Yummy food, alcohol, good smells-”

“Good smells?” Akasha giggled a bit under her breath.

“Yeah, I don’t know how else to describe it. I just want to sniff things that smell good, like flowers and candles and stuff.”

“Interesting. It would seem in terms of maintenance, we will be polar opposites.”

“It’s not my fault genies are hedonists!” Momonga laughed for the first time since coming to this new world, and it made Akasha smile.

“I’m not blaming you. If anything, I envy you. Keep going.”

“Well, some of my cravings are a bit... private. Can we change the subject now? I think I get the picture about what I have to do.” If Momonga had eyebrows, one of them would have lifted.

“Speaking of maintenance, we need to determine what supplies we need to keep Nazarick afloat. Many of our denizens will require food and water, and we need a steady supply of magical items and potions.” After saying that, Momonga tore his head up from his notebook to look at Akasha, who was leaning back and staring at him with a confident grin.

“Yup.” She said confidently.

“I suppose we won’t have to worry about most of that... as long as you’ve figured out how to use your magic.” Her grin was replaced by a look of mild concern.

“I guess I should go ahead and give it a shot.”

“Please do.”

Akasha leaned forward and closed her eyes, 

“I can feel all of my spells and mana... it’s so strange.”

“I can as well. I believe we’ll get used to it.”

She held her hand out, and dozens of tiny red lights began swirling around. In an instant, an object popped into existence in her hand. It was a small, ornate bottle filled with red liquid.

“It works!” She exclaimed.

“Indeed. How much has your mana depleted?” She looked to the side, feeling her mana internally.

“Damn, same amount as in Yggdrasil, so... quite a bit. Depending on how often we use these, I might not be able to keep up with our demand.”

“In that case, we should begin searching for alternate means of creating potions and scrolls. Conjuring anything magical will likely consume too much of your MP to be reliable. How about food and water?”

“I feel those spells within me too, it shouldn't be a problem.”

“Do you think your conjured food will satisfy your cravings?”

Akasha pondered the question and shrugged. She held her hands out in front of herself, and the glowing lights swirled once more, except this time they were green. What popped into existence was a plate of food. Momonga held back a gasp,

“Is that...?”

“Yup. My highest level food conjuration, [Divine Nectar Cake]. If this doesn’t satisfy my cravings, nothing I make will.”

On the plate was an immaculate looking brown cake with white and pink icing, complete with a knife and fork. She took the fork and scooped out a greedy chunk of the cake, shoving it into her mouth with a smile.

“Mmmmm......” She moaned in ecstasy. Momonga had never seen anyone enjoy food so much. “Holy shit... yeah. This is good. It definitely satisfies my food craving. Damn.” With a mouth full and hearts for pupils, she looked up to Momonga who was staring at her with his mouth open. “...Sorry.”

“If I said it’s fine, I would be lying. It doesn’t bother me as much as I thought it would though.”

“Well, that’s good at least.” She said with her mouth still full, and sat back in her chair. She was scarfing down the cake as Momonga continued.”

“Do you feel that you could create enough food to satisfy the denizens of Nazarick?”

“Most definitely. Remember, anything third tier or below is free for me to cast. I’ll restock our supplies whenever we need me to.” Momonga’s empty eye sockets glimmered.

“Speaking of free.”

“Mm?”

“You have many spell-related racial passives. The most powerful one... is it still there?”

“Oh shit, I didn’t even think about that.” She closed her eyes and focused deep within herself, “Yeah, it's definitely still there.”

“We should save it for emergencies. Don’t use it unnecessarily.”

“Right.”

“Good. Then you will be our trump card.”

“Don’t go giving me too much praise now, my head will get so big I’ll become top-heavy.” Momonga looked at her chest. Wasn’t she already top heavy?

***

Albedo had agreed with him. The notion that a Supreme Being should spend her immeasurably valuable time simply producing food for Nazarick was absurd. What were the denizens of Nazarick here for if not to perform such tasks themselves?

He knocked on the door to Lady Akasha’s office, and it opened at once. There he saw Narberal, who took a step to the side and bowed to him as he entered. She was excellent, at the very least someone powerful like Narberal was standing by protecting Lady Akasha.

As he entered, he was perturbed. There was Lady Akasha at her desk, papers and books scattered about, but something was wrong. When she looked upon him, a certain expression crossed her face, if but for a moment before being masked. It was the same expression he saw her give him at the Colosseum during their initial meeting. If he didn’t know better, he would call it fear.

“Demiurge, what can I do for you?” She asked with a smile.

“Ah, Akasha-sama, it is a pleasure,” He took a respectful bow with a faint smile on his face, “It has come to my attention that you plan to spend your valuable time producing food for Nazarick with your magic. Is this correct?”

“Yeah, why?’ Demiurge adjusted his glasses and his smile changed to a frown, but he did not rise from his bow.

“Akasha-sama, I must protest. It is unthinkable for one such as yourself to spend time with mere food production. Such a task should be allocated to the denizens of Nazarick.” Akasha leaned back in her chair and held the back of her head with her hands,

“That so?”

“Indeed, Akasha-sama. That is my fervent belief.”

“How come?” He hesitated. She seemed so confident, like she was peering straight through him and knew what he was going to say.

“It seems a waste of your precious time, my Lady. It is our duty as your loyal servants to alleviate you of such tasks.”

“Who says?” He hesitated again. It felt like she was steering the conversation to her whim, and he could guess where that question was leading. She would say that the duties of her servants are assigned by her, so unless she says it is their duty to relieve her of food production, then it is not their duty.

“My apologies, Akasha-sama. My wish is to serve you to the best of my abilities, and I believe the production of food should be handled by your servants so that your time may be spent doing other things.” Akasha leaned forward to speak,

“Demiurge, there are two major reasons I’m spending my time conjuring food. Do you know what they are?”

Two reasons? Was this a test? Somehow she seemed intimidating, like every single word of the conversation had been planned by her ahead of time. It felt unwinnable. She didn’t give him a chance to respond, thankfully. He didn’t want to guess at the reasons and get it wrong.

“The first is that I’m not wasting my time, I’m investing it. In total I’ll be spending about thirty minutes a week conjuring food for Nazarick. No one else in Nazarick is capable of conjuring food, so in order for the denizens of Nazarick to take my place in producing food, we would need to spend lots of time and resources on things such as agriculture and land acquisition for farms. By spending thirty minutes conjuring food, I spare Nazarick’s time and resources from the burden of producing food, and you can all serve Nazarick and myself with the extra time I have gifted you.”

He should have known better than to question the wisdom of a Supreme Being. More and more, it was becoming obvious that Lady Akasha was especially one that a fool such as himself should not question. She wasn’t spending her time, she was saving it.

“The second reason is especially important, and it’s something you should know about me as a person, Demiurge.” He froze momentarily. To learn something new about a Supreme Being was a priceless gift, one that would be bestowed upon him momentarily. “I hate waste. If we have a free, unlimited source of something, then producing it any other way is wasteful. The land we could use for farming could instead be used for something else.”

“I will commit your wisdom to memory, Akasha-sama. You have my sincerest gratitude for gracing me with your words.” He smiled deeply, knowing that her food conjuration was a mechanism she devised to bestow time to him. Time he could spend serving her. And he would, with all of his heart.

“Sure thing. Any objections?”

“None, my lady.”

“Excellent. You’re dismissed.”

***

It had been a few days now since they came to this world. Akasha was performing experiments on her new cravings. It seemed that they weren’t physical needs. She could go without eating, sleeping, or drinking, and not suffer any sort of hunger or fatigue, but there was a mental consequence. It was something akin to withdrawal. She didn’t need food or drink or sleep, but she craved it like a glutton. Plain food did absolutely nothing for her, so she gathered it wasn’t actually sustenance she desired, but the sensation of eating delicious food, dreaming, and being drunk.

Additionally, it would seem all sensations were experienced more intensely than when she was on earth. Food that tasted good, tasted _really fucking amazing._ Food that tasted really fucking amazing was like doing hard drugs.

There were a few cravings she had that she didn’t know how to satisfy yet, but there was one that she simply felt shy about satisfying.

Carnal desires.

For now, she was getting by on touching herself. It didn’t satisfy her craving though, it only staved it off. It wasn’t enough. She would eventually have to figure something out.

She had just finished touching herself and flopped lazily on her enormous bed with a sigh.

“Fuck I miss you.” She said, a tear streaming down her face, followed by a weak sob. “I miss you so much. So much.” She was talking through her sobs, “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to leave you. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” She kept repeating it, crying out to her former lover in misery and sorrow.

When she finished crying, she rose out of her bed with a sniffle and walked to her desk. There was an unfinished sketch of a man there, mildly attractive with slim features and short dark hair.

“I’ll never forget you.” She told the picture, sniffled, and sat to resume the sketch. The desk was covered with other unfinished sketches, each of a different person. There was an older man and woman, four people around Akasha’s age, and a young boy. “I’ll never forget any of you.”

**[Message]**

Momonga: I found some humans.

Akasha: Whoa, really?!

Momonga: Indeed.

Akasha: Well it’s about time! Where are they? What are they doing?

Momonga: It appears to be a small village near a forest. It’s being attacked by soldiers.

Akasha: Fuck, do they seem strong? Do you think we could help?

Momonga: I haven’t seen anything that resembles strength from them yet, but I don’t see the merit in helping.

Akasha: What?! Where are you?

Momonga: In my office.

**[Message end]**

“No merit in helping?!” The voice of Akasha erupted from behind Momonga and would have startled him if he hadn’t foreseen her teleportation. “Those people are in trouble and if we can help, we must! Oh... Hi Sebas.”

Sebas took a bow,

“Good afternoon, Akasha-sama.”

She nodded at Sebas and turned back to Momonga,

“So why not go help them?!”

“We have no information. It could create a troubling political situation for us to take sides here.”

“If a nation is willing to slaughter civilians like that, then I know which side I would pick.”

“We don’t know whether or not that village’s nation would do the same.”

“I don’t care, I’m going!”

Momonga let out a sigh, though there was no air behind it.

“Very well, I can’t stop you. You should take Albedo with you, and I will send several stealthed units to- She’s gone.” Momonga grabbed his face with his hand. He looked to Sebas, and was reminded of when Touch Me saved him as a low level player. Perhaps he should have been more willing to help after all.

“Sebas, inform Albedo of the situation and tell her to accompany Akasha-san in full gear. I will monitor the situation from here.”

“Right away, my Lord.”

***

At the peak of her despair, when all hope was lost and she winced in fear for her final moment, time froze. It felt like it froze, but in reality, the two men behind her had simply frozen in fear. When she looked at them, Enri saw the fear in their eyes, and somehow managed to look at the source of their fear against her better judgement.

There was darkness. An infinitesimally thin, yet unfathomably deep blackness. It was a half-oval of obsidian that seemed to protrude from the earth.

Was it a door?

Indeed, it was a shadowy passage of sorts, but the being who stepped through it did not resemble anything that she expected.

The woman who stepped through it was about as tall as Enri herself, but covered in dark clothing, including a magnificent looking scarf.

The most notable piece of gear was easily the mask on the woman’s face. It was just a simple black mask, but there was a little skin that she could see: the sides of the face and the ears, and that skin was blue. The woman’s surreally long, blue hair was up in a wavy ponytail that reached down to her waist.

Her fear was present, but was parallel to her confusion.

The men had frozen too. The woman herself did not elicit fear, but the fact that she had come out of that shadowy doorway was enough to cause significant alarm.

She reached out her hand, and another hand made of ice seemed to shoot out of it,

“[Goku Tsume]”

She heard the creaking of ice and the scraping of metal as the icy claw raked through one of the men behind her as if he were made of air. His minced corpse flopped to the ground, and the other man dropped his sword and began running away.

She quickly turned and, seeing his corpse, barely held back the urge to vomit.

That was no woman, it was a spirit. A spirit of doom.

She prayed for a quick, painless death as she hugged her sister tightly to herself. There was no escape from a being like this one. She prayed again, this time that her sister would not be lonely as they went on to the afterlife, because they would be travelling there together.

*

What had she just done?

She just killed a man. A human being. He was dead. He was minced meat on the ground right in front of her.

Fuck.

She... didn’t have a choice, right? That man would have killed these girls. He was evil. He had to die. She had to kill him. She had... done it. She saved these girls.

She killed a man to do it.

She killed a man. **_She killed a man._ **

She wanted to puke. She wanted to break down crying. She would have done both if the other man hadn’t started running away.

She had to stop him. He would kill others. She had to k-... She had to... To kill him.

She had to kill him.

Oh god... was she a murderer now? Oh fuck.

“[Paralysis].”

The fleeing man suddenly dropped to the ground.

That spell had only been of the 4th level. Were these soldiers simply a weak militia or something?

She didn’t want to kill anymore. She would go insane if she had to kill again. At least for now.

But the village... it was still under attack. She still had to do something.

“[Summon Monster 7th]: Deva!”

A ray of light broke through the clouds and illuminated the space in front of her. From the clouds descended a being with long, flowing silver hair, gray skin, and toned muscles. The gray woman, who wore naught but golden bracers and a short white robe held fast to her waist by a golden belt, carried a large, golden mace in her hand, and had two massive angel wings on her back.

She descended to the ground within a matter of seconds.

Weird, that’s not how it worked in Yggdrasil. She would normally just spawn with a simple puff of smoke animation.

Akasha had to act fast in order to save as many people as possible.

“Kill the knights attacking that village, and set to auto-heal any injured villagers.”

The deva nodded and quickly flew away towards the village.

Right. Good to know summons can just go off and do stuff.

“The preparations took some time. I apologize for my late arrival,” Akasha turned to see Albedo had stepped through her [Gate], and was geared in her full, demonic black armor and horned helmet.

“Ah, glad you made it. I-It’s fine, I just,” She looked to the corpse she had made with her [Polar Claw] and felt sick.

“Mm. How shall we dispose of these inferior lifeforms? If you do not wish to stain your hands with their blood, I will gladly eliminate them on your behalf, Akasha-sama.”

“What? Do you know why we’re here?”

Albedo did not respond.

“We’re here to save the village from the attacking knights, like that paralyzed knight over there.”

Albedo nodded in understanding,

“Then, shall I eliminate the paralyzed knight?”

“No! I mean- No, it’s fine. We can interrogate him for information.”

“As expected of the Great Akasha-sama!”

“Right...” What was she talking about? She cast [Paralyze] because she didn’t have the stomach to kill another person, not because she planned to keep him alive and interrogate him or something!

Akasha turned to the sisters and removed her [Mask of Protection] to show them her face. She smiled warmly at them and crouched down to be eye level.

“Are you hurt badly?” She asked as kindly as she could. The older sister shivered in fear, staring at Akasha. Akasha sympathized, she would be scared of herself too if their positions were changed.

“I’m sorry all of this has happened to you. I’m here to help, I can heal you if you need it. There’s no need to be afraid.”

Finally, somehow breaking through her fear, the older sister spoke up with her eyes closed,

“W-Warash fulot feron!” 

Eh? 

“Fulot feron! Warash!”

_...What?  
_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What's this? Aren't languages automatically translated in the New World? NANI?!


	4. A story that could have been.

This wasn’t how it was supposed to go! How come in all the fiction she normally reads, everyone already speaks Japanese or there’s just some convenient universal translator? How troublesome. She had no idea how to proceed.

**[Message]**

Akasha: Momonga-san, I-

Momonga: I can see. It would appear this new world has a language of its own.

Akasha: Do we have something like a... I don’t know... Comprehend Languages or something?

Momonga: Yggdrasil didn’t have any kind of language magic. You could try [Telepathy] though, it’s possible that communicating directly to their minds will automatically translate the communication.

Akasha: Right... I’ll give it a shot.

**[Message End]**

“[Telepathy]”

Akasha could feel her mind widen and reach out. She felt a tether to her mind that could connect with other minds. She even felt where other minds were within a certain radius of herself. She sensed several creatures surrounding them, but could tell their minds were of Nazarick. Scouts? Guards? Whatever the case, it was imperative to open communications as quickly as possible.

_ “Don’t be afraid, it’s okay. I don’t understand your language, so I’m communicating directly with your mind... I hope that’s alright.”  _ She smiled as warmly as she could manage.

_ “No way, can you hear my thoughts?”  _ It worked! She sounded so terrified and hopeless, and so young. What a tragedy.

_ “Only if you send the thoughts to me. I can’t read your mind, we can just talk mentally.” _

_ “P-Please spare us!” _

“Yuwut, fel cal? Fel cal?” The younger sister spoke up, noticing the strange silence between them. The older sister turned to her,

“Kwan loy, sil verunia coldo. Poridya.”

_ “There’s no need to be afraid, I’m here to help you and your village from the attacking soldiers. My name is Akasha. Can I have your name?” _

_ “It’s.. Enri.”  _ As they spoke to eachother in their minds, the older sister, to Akasha’s best guess, repeated their conversation to her younger sister.

_ “Miss Enri, nice to meet you! What was your sister saying?” _

_ “She was asking... why we were being quiet.” _

_ “I see. You look injured, are you okay?” _

_ “It hurts.” _

_ “I would love to give you a healing potion if you’ll let me.” _

_ “O-Okay.” _

Akasha reached into a void that appeared in the air, and pulled out a healing potion. She undid the top and took a tiny sip to demonstrate that it was safe, and handed it to Enri.

“Akasha-sama, you would bestow unto them such a valuable personal relic?” It was just a [Minor Healing Potion], it’s not like it was that valuable.

“Sure, she’s hurt and we’re here to help.”

“Your benevolence truly knows no bounds, my Lady.”

“Ah... Right.”

_ “I’m going to summon a creature here to protect you. Is that okay?” _

_ “Yes! Thank you so much!” _

“[Summon Monster 7th]: Shield Golem!”

The armor from the cadaver that Akasha had created using [Polar Claw] began to twist and melt, eventually pooling up in liquid form in front of Akasha. It grew in size and mass as it formed into a vaguely humanoid shape roughly twelve feet tall. When its girthy shape was finished, the liquid cooled into a menacing looking metal golem, complete with a massive sword and shield.

The minced corpse was now only clothed in tattered undergarments.

Weird, that’s not how it worked in the game either. It seems summoning creatures would be different in this New World.

“Shield Golem, protect these two girls!”

From the golem’s featureless face, a metallic noise rang out in acknowledgement, and a faint beam of light shot out towards the girls who screamed in panic. When they opened their eyes, they saw a shimmering, translucent field around them, as if the air around them was distorted by heat.

_ “As long as you stay within that bubble, any damage you would take will be taken by the Shield Golem instead. It will also fight enemies on your behalf.” _

_ “Th-Thank you, Akasha!” _

Akasha pondered for a moment, would this Shield Golem be enough to protect these girls? If all of the soldiers attacking the village were roughly the same strength as the two she had already dispatched, then her Deva alone should be able to slaughter them all...

**Slaughter?**

Was this a massacre?

The attackers were carrying out their own massacre, so was it not right to kill them in defense?

She eyed the paralyzed soldier. Did he have a family back home? Was he just following orders? Who would follow such disgusting orders, though? Surely even if he had loved ones, they were better off without scum like him, right?

Maybe he had been coerced. Maybe he didn’t want to do something like this, but he had no choice. As weak as he seemed to be, it would make sense for him to not be able to stand up to coercion. She pitied him.

She considered all of the soldiers might be in similar situations, and the Deva was out there just slaughtering them left and right. Every swing of its mace would be a life that ended. An entire life. Each soldier had a childhood, they had parents, friends, possibly lovers or children. Where were their childhood friends at? What caused them to become soldiers? Each and every single one of them had a long story to tell, and that story was being cut short one after the other, with each swing of her Deva’s mace.

It was time to end it.

“Albedo, let’s go.”

“Right!”

_ “A-Akasha, can you still hear me?” _

“Hm?” Akasha turned to see Enri staring at her with tears in her eyes.

_ “I can, what do you need?” _ She crouched and smiled again.

_ “Our... parents. Please, if- If they’re still alive- This is a selfish request but- Please save them!” _

Akasha eyed Enri some more. There was something about her that piqued Akasha’s interest. A fire in her eyes that threatened to extinguish her fear.

She held out her hand and swirling silver lights formed into the shape of a small hand mirror.

_ “If you call out my name while looking into this mirror, I will hear it and come immediately. I won’t hear anything you say besides my name, so only do it if you’re in danger, okay?” _

_ “Okay...” _

“[Fly].”

With that, Akasha and Albedo flew away towards the village.

***

There were none like Lady Akasha. She was brilliant, and dealt with these pathetic humans so delicately. Already Albedo was managing a glimpse into her plans, but she was sure she had yet to even scratch the surface. These worms should gladly teach them their language after being saved by them, so Albedo understood that much of Lady Akasha’s plan.

They hovered high above the village, watching as Lady Akasha’s Deva, who was lucky enough to have been summoned by her personally, was slaughtering the insignificant ants attacking the village.

“Enough, Deva!”

The brilliant, winged, gray woman halted just as she was about to splatter another worthless human with her mace, and turned to look at Lady Akasha, her long silver hair flowing gently in the breeze. Good, the Deva was quick to follow orders, it had potential as a future servant for the Supreme Beings. As expected of a creature personally summoned by Lady Akasha herself.

Lady Akasha turned to look at a villager, an old man who was cowering with the other villagers.

“Tul pormu coutya savunta?!” He shouted, clearly shocked by her Lady’s [Telepathy].

A full forty seconds of blissful silence went by, and Albedo could feel the fear and trepidation of all the humans below her. Even the soldiers who had thus far been spared by her Lady were frozen in fear, too afraid to flee in case they were noticed and pursued.

Albedo flew lower than Lady Akasha so that she did not tower over her as she usually did, instead giving her Lady a head of height to look down on Albedo, as it should be when the opportunity presented itself.

Finally, the old man spoke up, stuttering and choking on his own words, speaking to the soldiers and the villagers. Albedo figured that he had been chosen to represent her Lady’s words as a translator, to speak on her behalf.

That human must be protected at all costs. He was a pathetic lower lifeform, but he had been specially chosen to be a representative of Lady Akasha herself, thus any transgression against him was an unforgivable sin.

**[Message]**

Albedo: Mare, are you busy?

Mare: Albedo-sama! I-I can talk, what is it?

Albedo: There may be some creatures designated by Akasha-sama who should be watched over and protected. Transgressions against these creatures, even if they are humans, will be considered a sin. I will remember them and show them to you, so that you can create images of them to show to the denizens of Nazarick.

Mare: R-Right!

**[Message End]**

The old man finished speaking to the soldiers, and they began running away.

Pathetic.

“[Mass Paralysis]” All but one of the soldiers dropped to the ground, only slightly twitching to try to escape. The unaffected soldier ran as fast as he could.

“Shall I deal with that maggot, my Lady?”

“No, he will be a messenger to his nation. The others will be brought to Nazarick and ensorcelled to teach us their language.”

“A brilliant plan, my Lady.” Albedo would have to consult with Demiurge later on the deeper intricacies of her Lady’s plans, since learning their language was clearly just Step One of Phase One.

After landing and heading inside with the Village Chief, they spent a while chatting with the villagers. Lady Akasha was conveying the conversations to Albedo, and the old man was conveying the conversations to his fellow villagers. She instinctively wanted to think of them as worthless, but she was already finding that they were at least worth as much as the information they could provide in gratitude to their saviour.

They spoke of surrounding nations, of the different languages and dialects of different regions in the known world, of the magic of this New World, of currency and politics, and several other important aspects about this strange place.

**[Message]**

Momonga: Albedo,

Albedo: Yes, Momonga-sama? How may I serve you?

Momonga: When Akasha-san is finished with her current conversation, inform her that there are more soldiers on the way. It is a smaller troop of fighters who appear to be from a different nation than the last one.

Albedo: Yes, my lord!

Momonga: They are being followed by a troop of magic casters who appear to be from yet another nation. It is possible that that village holds something valuable, so be on the lookout.

Albedo: Right!

**[Message End]**

“It would seem third tier magic is the highest level of magic normal people can cast, and the best fighters are on par with that level of magic caster.” Akasha lightly massaged her chin to think, then looked up at Albedo. “That’s... really weak, huh?”

“You are correct, Akasha-sama. It would seem the drivel of this world gives us no reason to fear.”

“Ah... that’s not all there is to be afraid of.” As she finished the sentence, she quickly looked away from Albedo as if hiding something.

Of course. How could Albedo have been so blind? The normal level of fighter and magic caster of this New World were nothing to fear, but surely there were other things to fear. Powerful monsters, powerful artifacts, and perhaps even other Players from Yggdrasil. Caution was still important. Albedo understood that now, and felt ashamed for disappointing Lady Akasha so much that she had turned away from her.

“Please forgive my ineptitude, Akasha-sama! I will strive to do better in the future!”

“No, that’s-... It’s fine, Albedo. You’re forgiven.”

“Your grace knows no bounds!”

“Right...”

“Akasha-sama, Momonga-sama has informed me that there are more soldiers riding towards the village, followed by magic casters. Both seem to be from different nations, and Momonga-sama has told me to be on the lookout for something valuable that this village holds.”

“Got it, thanks.” Lady Akasha quickly turned to the old man, who seemed shocked and fearful at whatever it was she was saying. He quickly ran out the door, and Lady Akasha and Albedo followed.

***

They all stood in the village square as the bell sounded, alerting the villagers. The Deva took her place behind and to the left of Akasha, and that’s when Akasha realized the Deva was a giant even taller than Cocytus. Compared to her five foot frame, it was a surreal feeling. Albedo stood behind and to the right of Akasha.

The village elder looked at Akasha with a worried expression,

_ “Don’t worry, the job I have accepted payment for is to protect this village. This is part of the job description.”  _ She smiled at him warmly, and the chief’s trembling stopped as he repeated her words to the villagers in their own tongue.

After a while, they spotted the mounted warriors along the road leading to the village. The horsemen slowly entered the square.

“Are they mercenaries?” Akasha asked no one, noting they all wore different equipment.

“I don’t believe so, Akasha-sama,” Albedo answered. Somehow she had heard Akasha’s whisper, “My guess is that they are equipped to travel swiftly. They don’t appear aggressive, so it is most likely that they are a force that has been deployed to stop the massacre of this village, and perhaps others. Of course, I am not saying anything you have not figured out for yourself already, my apologies.” Well, she was wrong there. Akasha wouldn’t have been able to guess all of that just from the demeanor and attire of these warriors.

They all finally entered the square. There were around twenty of them, and while they were wary of Akasha, Albedo, and especially Akasha’s Deva, they formed up neatly before them and the village chief. A man stepped forward from the rest of the force.

He seemed to be the leader of the horsemen. He looked like the fiercest and most eye-catching one of his men.

The leader’s eyes rested briefly upon the Village Chief before lingering on the Deva. He turned toward Albedo and took a long time looking at her. Once he satisfied himself that none of them were going to move, he immediately turned his keen gaze on Akasha.

The expression on her face was plain curiosity, nothing else. She knew this man posed no threat to her, she had just seen her Deva slaughter an entire company of soldiers by itself, and her Deva certainly posed no threat to her either. She no longer feared the people of this world, all of her fear was focused on the denizens of Nazarick, especially, for now, the one standing by her side.

The leader was the sort who made his living by violence, and upon seeing Akasha’s unfaltering curiosity, he seemed satisfied, and spoke in a grave tone. The village elder looked to Akasha to mentally repeat the words to her.

_ “He says he is the Warrior-Captain of the Re-Estize Kingdom, Gazef Stronoff! He and his men, by order of the king, have been sent to slay the knights that have been attacking the frontier villages!” _

“Gazef,” She heard some of the villagers whispering behind her. Proper nouns appeared to be the same in their language.

“Tundug Ser Re-Estize...” some others whispered.

_ “Warrior-Captain Gazef Stronoff, was it?”  _ Akasha sent her thoughts into his mind. He startled and clasped the sword still in its hilt, looking around for the source of the noise.

“Tulk fon huyut sathul! Kor tsetu!” He yelled. She guessed he was goading the hidden being he assumed was behind the voice to come and show itself. The men behind Gazef all clasped their weapons and Akasha could feel Albedo’s caution rise drastically.

“Nun, Ser Gazef!” The village chief intervened, “Fyur ka frozu ti Run Akasha, teldrinia faket!”

_ “Sorry about that, I should have opened with an explanation. My name is Akasha, I don’t speak your language so I must communicate with a spell called [Telepathy]. To respond, simply think your words at me, as if throwing them towards me.” _

_ “I see, like this?” _

_ “Yes, just like that.” _

“Kuhut sul trilnoka tash, fier!” Gazef yelled behind him, and the men all seemed to ease up, as did Gazef himself.

_ “And what exactly is your purpose here, Akasha?”  _

_ “I saw the village being attacked by the knights you spoke of, so I guess I came to save them.” _

Gazef began repeating their conversation out loud, and dismounted to bow deeply, his armor clattering loudly.

_ “Thank you for saving this village. I have no words that can adequately praise your kindness.” _

_ “Of course.” _

_ “Forgive my rudeness, Master Akasha,”  _ Master?  _ “But may I ask what exactly...” _ He stopped, as if he didn’t want to come across as rude.

What was he going to ask? What her reason for helping was? What the Deva was? What she was?

Wait.

Was her...

She looked down and folded a glove forward to see the blue skin of her arm.

Oh shit.

**_Oh shit._ **

Fuck fuck fuck fuck she had forgotten to change herself into a human! These people must think she’s some kind of monster!

Well, they wouldn’t be entirely wrong, would they? She’s a genie after all.

What should she say? She didn’t have time to think of a good answer, so she said the first thing to come to her mind,

_ “If you’re wondering why my skin is blue, it’s due to a spell that went wrong. That’s all.” _

_ “Ah, I see. You must be a capable magic caster.” _

_ “Right... well actually, yeah, I guess I am.” _ Gazef nearly raised an eyebrow. Her way of talking was strange, but perhaps she had been a recluse, studying powerful magic in secret, and had poorly developed social skills. It would make sense, since he had never heard of her before.

_ “Is that creature under your control?” _ Everyone looked to the Deva as Gazef continued relaying the conversation to everyone.

_ “Yes, no need to fear. She’s completely under my control. More importantly, Gazef-san,” _

_ San? _

_ “Your troop has been followed by a group of magic casters. Are they your allies?” _

_ “No. I suppose that means you don’t know why they’re here either.” _

Akasha turned to the Village Chief,

_ “Is there something valuable in this town?” _ He repeated her words in their language, and then responded,

_ “No, we are a simple agricultural and herbalism town.” _

What the hell? Why was this town being targeted so much? She looked at Gazef who was focusing intently on her; she guessed he was trying to send his thoughts. Unfortunately the level she cast [Telepathy] at only allowed her to tether herself to one person at a time.

_ “Do you know why they’re here?” _

_ “Oh, I was just saying that my guess is that they’re after me.” _ It made sense. If he was one of the greatest warriors in the Kingdom, then taking him out would be beneficial to a warring nation.

God, she could go for some cake. And booze. And sex. And other stuff that she couldn’t even recognize. Actually, skip the cake. She wanted meat. Something fried, perhaps. Guh, this was no time to be thinking of such things!

_ “How can I help?” _ Gazef seemed surprised and hesitated before repeating her thoughts out loud. Everyone, even the villagers, looked to her in shock. It wasn’t a despairing shock, it was as if a stranger had just offered to pay off all of their debts.

_ “Master Akasha, I don’t know if we could compensate you for such assistance.” _

_ “It’s okay! Unnecessary bloodshed is unacceptable. It’s a waste of life.” _ The surprised look on Gazef’s face turned to a grin.

_ I see now what kind of person she is. _ He thought.

_ “In that case, they cannot be allowed to return to the Slane Theocracy.” _

The Slane Theocracy? Weren’t all these soldiers from the Baharuth Empire?

_ “Right...” _

_ “We would like to keep at least one alive to bring back as a prisoner to be interrogated.” _

_ “Would any of these soldiers be acceptable?” _ Gazef looked out at the dozens of paralyzed soldiers, which he had assumed were corpses.

_ “Are they alive?” _

_ “Many of them are. I sent my Deva out to protect the villagers because I was protecting other villagers in the forest. Once I got here, I called it off and just used a spell to paralyze them all.”  _ Gazef’s jaw dropped as he looked at all the victims of her paralysis spell. What kind of monster spellcaster was she that she could so casually talk about paralyzing so many soldiers?

_ “Incredible, Master Akasha!” _

“Heh heh...” She laughed nervously as, when he repeated her words in his own language, all the warriors and villagers around them reacted similarly to Gazef. They were all stunned at her power.

_ “Then, I would ask to be permitted to take them all in for questioning!” _

_ “Sorry. You can take a few, but I would like to take most of them for myself. I’m hoping to learn from them and reform them, so they can use their abilities for good.” _

Gazef felt a feeling of hope and faith he did not recognize. It was so intense that alongside it was a hint of doubt. This Akasha character seemed too benevolent and powerful to exist. Adamantite adventurers surely existed and did great things for the world, but they did so for the promise of apt compensation. What was her aim? What did she get out of this?

No, he had to believe such goodness existed in this world. What else was he fighting for if not for his faith in humanity?

_ “Very well, I understand. We would take two soldiers and one spellcaster as prisoners, if that is acceptable for you.” _

_ “Sure thing!” _

He slowly closed the distance between himself and Akasha. As he approached, he could feel a field around her, as if any sudden hostile movements within the field would result in a death so quick that he wouldn’t realize he had died.

Was this field coming from her? Was it a spell?

No, he watched her closely and her warm smile was genuine. She was quick to trust. Such a thing could be her downfall in the future.

Then where?

Of course. He looked at the woman in black armor who stood at Akasha’s side. The hostility was coming from her. He didn’t blame her in the least. That armored woman likely knew of Akasha’s power, benevolence, and bad habit of trusting people too quickly. A habit he shared. The self-proclaimed greatest warrior in the Kingdom was approaching her... client? Sister? Daughter? Friend? Ally? Their relationship was unclear, but what  _ was  _ clear was that she was Akasha’s guardian, and she knew of Akasha’s weakness, and felt protective over her.

From a distance, he thought the armored woman and the Deva were just giants.

The Deva was a giant, but the armored woman was shorter than Gazef himself. It turned out that Akasha was just quite small.

He extended his hand to her, and she gladly accepted it and shook it. They smiled genuinely at eachother.

_ Finally, someone other than Momonga-san that I don’t have to be afraid of.  _ Akasha thought. She hoped she could talk more with Gazef in the future.

Ah, there were a few other beings in Nazarick she didn’t fear. Sebas, for example. He had a Positive Karma, and had been programmed to be a pretty good guy. She felt safer with him around than most other beings in Nazarick. More importantly, he didn’t seem the type to think things through as thoroughly as people like Albedo and Demiurge, so she wasn’t as on guard with him.

_ “You will be in charge, then. Me and my soldiers are at your disposal, how shall we proceed with dealing with the incoming magic casters?” _

_ “You and your soldiers just go and rest up. My party can handle them.” _

_ “Master Akasha, are you certain? We are willing to lay down our lives to help defeat them.” _

_ “No wasteful deaths, Gazef. It’s not a problem. If we end up in trouble, I have magic that can summon you to help. Besides, who knows if they’ll try to sneak someone past, then who will protect the villagers if I’m way out there?” _

_ “Uh... Right, good thinking. We will rest and be prepared to be summoned at any time.” _

_ “I’ll leave the Deva with you, just in case.” _

_ “If you are certain, then we gladly accept the added protection.” _

“Deva, protect the villagers and these warriors with your life.” The Deva bowed deeply.

Akasha nodded to Gazef kindly, and hovered into the air along Albedo, flying away towards the magic casters.

_ Incredible. If they can all fly, they must be truly powerful.  _ Gazef thought, before ordering his men to tie up any living paralyzed soldiers, and later to take shelter with the villagers and protect them.

***

“Hm?” Nigun pondered, noticing two figures in the distance, both dark against the backdrop of the oranging sky. He held up his hand for his company to halt.

Damn, they had almost made it to the village, but as he eyed those two figures, a shiver ran down his spine.

“I see them too, Nigun.” Said a male voice to his right.

“It’s just two, likely a trap.” Said a male voice to his left.

“Use scrying magic to determine the location of their allies. We’ll turn their own trap against them.”

The men nodded and began to retrieve items from their sacks to assist with their divination magic.

A minute passed.

“Anything?”

“We can’t find any allies hiding nearby. It’s possible they have advanced stealthing abilities or anti-divination spells active.”

“Or both.”

“What’s the plan, sir?”

He pondered for a while. No matter who it was, this was a task force set up to slay Gazef Stronoff himself. The gods were on their side, the numbers were likely on their side, the power was on their side, and the angels had already been summoned. No matter what sort of trap had been set, they would likely have the power to crush the opposition and continue towards their goal.

The problem wasn’t whether or not they could win; of course they could. Their problem was if their losses would be great enough to warrant a mission abort. Without the proper amount of force, they wouldn’t be able to handle Gazef.

_ “Hurry up, we don’t have all day.” _ A voice rang out in his head. Was that someone from the Theocracy berating him for taking too long? He grimaced and sent his thoughts back to the sender,

_ “Who is this?” _ Before relaying any crucial information to explain the delay, he had to verify who he was talking to.

_ “Name’s Akasha. Me and my companion are waiting for you, what’s the hold up?” _

Huh?

“Sir? The plan?”

“Hold on, someone’s talking to me using magic.”

_ “Akasha, huh? Never heard of you. I suppose you and your companion are the people ahead of us.” _

_ “Yup.” _

_ “And what of your other companions? The ones in hiding? We’ve already located them and have our sights set on them. If you don’t remove yourself from our path, it would be a simple task to take them out before approaching you.” _ It was quite the bluff, but if it gave him information about the trap, it was worth it.

_ “The ones at the village? I think they’ll be safe.” _

_ “Do you take me for a fool? I speak of your companions hidden nearby, ready to flank us should we approach you.” _

_ “If you’re that scared, then we’ll come to you.” _

There was a subtle shifting of the dark figures, and they vanished.

Only to reappear directly in front of Nigun and his troop, all of whom gasped at their arrival.

One of them was a woman dressed head to toe in jet black armor, a horned helm, and weidling a battle axe.

The other was a short woman with long blue hair, dressed in dark clothing, a black scarf, and a black mask. The visible skin of her face was also blue, a bit lighter than her hair.

“Wh-What?! Teleportation magic? Just who are you?!”

_ “Sorry, I don’t speak your language, we’ll have to continue talking like this.” _

_ “You’ve made a grave error coming before us like this. You should have stayed in your trap. Who do you think you are?” _

_ “I already said my name’s Akasha. You still haven’t told me yours.” _

Nigun grinned wickedly. The Gods truly were on their side. This woman was an overconfident fool.

Perhaps not overconfident. She used teleportation magic so casually... but still, she would be no match for the angels.

_ “The dead have no need of such knowledge, but I’m feeling generous. You can call me Nigun.” _ Surely they would recognize his name, and their fear would soon be palpable. The shorter woman turned to the armored woman,

“Kare no namae wa nigunda to kare wa itta. Watashiniha gōman'na yōdesu. Kare wa watashitachi ga kare no tame ni wana o shikaketa to omotte iru yōdesu.”

Wh-...What?

What did he just hear?

Impossible... It was impossible...

He looked back at his men, all of whom had come to the same conclusion as he had...

No way...

***

“He said his name is Nigun. Seems kind of arrogant to me. He seems to think we had a trap set up for him.” Akasha told Albedo, who simply nodded at her. She didn’t want to speak in case it would interrupt a telepathic message that Akasha was sending or receiving.

She turned back to the magic casters, but something was off. They all looked like they had seen a nuclear explosion go off or something. What the hell was that about?

_ “What’s wrong? Did you see a ghost or something?” _ She asked Nigun slyly.

“You- You spek thee language af thee Gods?!” He said in broken Japanese. His accent was weird and his pronunciations were a bit strange, but it was definitely Japanese.

...

**_WHAT?!_ **

Language of the Gods?!

“Uh... What are you...”

“Who-... Jast who een thee hell  _ are _ you?! This language is sacred, a deevine secret onlee thee innermost circles of thee Slane Theocracy can speak! So why do you speak it?!”

Akasha looked to Albedo, who was looking at Akasha now too.

“This just got weird.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a three day weekend so I figured I'd shoot out another chapter really quickly. I'm having a lot of fun writing this, I hope you're having fun reading it. I'd love it if you left a comment! Thanks for reading!


	5. Lemon

She stood ready to end their miserable lives at any moment, should Lady Akasha give the word. These pathetic lower lifeforms were daring to address Lady Akasha so informally, so demandingly, it was enough to infuriate any Guardian, but she would persevere. She would stand by and watch as Lady Akasha syphoned what information she could out of them, and she would await the moment she was ordered to end their wretched existence.

“You... speak Japanese?” Lady Akasha asked. They hesitated to answer, seeming surprised by her question.

How... how  _ dare _ they?! They were wasting her Lady’s valuable time by not answering post haste. She glanced at Lady Akasha, wondering if she would give the word to use one of their lives as an example to not hesitate when asked a question.

The moment didn’t come. Perhaps her Lady’s strategy would be different. A plethora of possible strategies for syphoning information out of these fools came to mind, but she couldn’t quite place her finger on which one her Lady was using. If only Demiurge were here, they could discuss Lady Akasha’s actions and revel in how deeply thought out each movement she made was.

“Eempossible!” The leader of the maggots spoke, “Thee name of thee deevine language ees a seecret as well! How do you know of eet?!”

Wretch. Scum. Trash. Filth.

Not only did they hesitate, but they didn’t even answer at all, instead asking Lady Akasha a question themselves.

The metal of Albedo’s gauntlet and axe creaked together as she squeezed harder and harder, tempering her burning rage and bloodlust. As much as she wanted to murder them, intervening with the machinations of her Lady was a sin, so she had to hold herself back. An increasingly more difficult thing to do.

They should prostrate themselves before her Lady for being responsible for their lives being prolonged for so long.

“I know of it because it’s my native language. How do you know of it?” Lady Akasha was so calm, she spoke to them almost as if she cared for their lives. The epitome of grace and performance.

The leader snarled at Lady Akasha. To release a fraction of her overflowing rage, Albedo swung her axe to the side so hard that it split the earth and caused a quake. The fear they felt at her outburst was palpable.

“Albedo, if you can’t control yourself, go back to Nazarick and send someone who can.” Albedo bowed as deeply as she could.

“My sincerest apologies, my Lady. It will not happen again.” She said, her voice quivering in fear and shame.

“Good.” Albedo turned her head to the humans and glared at them with rage, but something was different. Their fear had transformed into utter awe at Lady Akasha.

Of course. All of that was planned by her Lady well ahead of time. It all made sense now.

Lady Akasha had felt Albedo’s fury growing, and knew the outburst was inevitable. She used Albedo’s demonstration of power to elicit fear in the men, and scolded Albedo so that she would prostrate and apologize to her, establishing the power dynamic between them. She made it obvious that Albedo could crush them all, and then made it obvious that she could crush Albedo and was her superior, thus gaining their respect while retaining her calm rapport with them.

She wondered how far back the plan had been made. Likely as soon as she had learned of the humans’ existence. That was Albedo’s guess.

Lady Akasha removed her mask, revealing her face to them. They would rejoice if they knew how privileged they were.

“Heretic!” They shouted.

Heretic? How could a Supreme Being be a heretic to themselves? It made no sense. Or did these maggots seriously believe the Supreme Beings were lesser than whatever gods they believed in?

“Filthy demihuman, I do not know how you speak thee language of thee Gods, but we will cleanse yoor exeestence from this wurld!”

Their angels began approaching Lady Akasha all at once. Albedo readied herself,

“Don’t interfere, Albedo. These are Yggdrasil monsters, this will be a good opportunity to experiment.”

“Understood.”

“[Turncoat].” The approaching angels suddenly stopped right as they were about to strike Lady Akasha, and turned to face the magic casters.

“Wh-What treeckery is this?!”

“I’ll tell you if you tell me where you learned Japanese.” The human stepped back in a panic,

“I-Illusion! Eet must be an illusion!” Lady Akasha crossed her arms,

“Angels, seize that man.” As they approached their former master, his face turned to terror.

“Men, kill the angels! Kill them!” They hesitated, but followed through with the order, blasting various spells at the angels, destroying them one after the other. One of the angels made it to Nigun and grasped him, but Nigun himself was able to blast it with his own spell, destroying it. They were all panting, it was obvious they were out of their league, and yet, Nigun grinned.

“You may be able to steal lower summons like those, but what of this?!” He pulled out a familiar item, a Sealing Crystal. Lady Akasha focused her eyes on the item, “Yes, I can seense your fear. This contains thee most powerful summon that exeests!”

What an absolute fool. He knew not of Lady Akasha’s power.

Nigun ritually broke the crystal in his hand, and a brilliant radiance spilled forth, revealing a ball of light that formed into a legendary angel.

“Beehold! Thee highest angel! Dominion Authority!” Nigun exalted confidently.

“[Turncoat].” Lady Akasha said flatly, and the creature drifted over to her Lady and faced the magic casters, ready for combat.

They froze. Was it terror? Shock? Awe? She didn’t know, and she didn’t really care, as long as they began to show her Lady the respect she deserved.

“[Summon Monster 7th]: Dominion Authority!” Another bright radiance filled the air as a second Dominion Authority, this one even bigger and more ornate than Nigun’s, took its side by Lady Akasha.

Nigun fell to his knees,

“Fel... Turash pol il. Pol il.” He was in a daze, forgetting that his own native tongue meant nothing to them. “Krus fyori Dominion Authority... Unmoglich...”

“If you surrender, I’ll spare your lives, and you’ll come to my home to teach us everything you know.”

Nigun bowed, nearly planting his face into the dirt, tears running down his cheeks and dripping into the soil below,

“We... surrender!”

***

“What are you animating?” Maro asked quietly. Naomi turned to see him smiling at her, the fluorescent lights beaming off his pale skin.

“More propaganda, unfortunately.” She said in a defeated tone. “A cartoon about how great it is to work yourself to death, bla bla bla.” Maro put his hand on her shoulder, eyeing the computer screen in front of them.

“It’s beautiful.” He sounded like he was looking at a sunset from the Dive Gear or something.

“I don’t know if I’d call it beautiful, it’s a really simple art style.”

“No, not the art,” He reached towards the monitor and turned the screen off, leaving a purely black screen in front of them. “The reflection of the artist.” Naomi blushed and tucked her hair behind her ear,

“I-Idiot, I’m trying to work.” She reached for the monitor to turn it back on, but her hand was stopped by his and clasped gently. “Wh- What...” She turned her head to meet his face within pecking distance of hers, and her entire world stopped. “Are...” She couldn’t keep going as they locked eyes, staring into eachother’s souls. She suddenly became acutely aware of how labored her breathing was, and could feel her heart pounding in her chest faster and faster.

He moved his face forward and locked her in with a kiss. Her heart exploded, her mind went supernova, her body was on fire. Her eyes glazed over as they closed, melting into his lips. It was a slow, sensual kiss, pressing their lips together like it was their first time as the fire between them grew and grew.

She stood up, never breaking away from the kiss, having to tilt her head down to keep their lips locked together once she stood at full height.

She finally broke away, taking his face in her hands as she looked down into his hungry eyes.

“Bad.” She said seductively, seeing the faint blush on his face turn into a fever. “You interrupted my work,” His breathing intensified and she could feel his heartbeat in her fingers as one of her hands rubbed his cheek. She leaned down to kiss his neck and bit it gently, hearing a quiet moan from her lover as she took in his lemon scent, “You better hope you have enough energy to compensate me.” She whispered into his ear and felt him shiver.

“Naomi...” He whispered. She kissed his ear. “I love you...” A spark jolted through her spine. He made her feel like fire. 

She gently bit his earlobe, “I lo-”

She couldn’t finish the line. 

Something was stopping her. 

Her entire body was paralyzed. 

She watched as Maro, also paralyzed, shrunk away into the distance along with their apartment. She faded into the walls and everything around their apartment was just a black void. She tried to shout, to claw at the walls, to reach for Maro, to scream at the top of her lungs, but nothing worked.

“M...” She managed, then saw the image of a familiar skeleton in ornate black robes.

**_“MARO!”_ ** She jolted up in her bed, tears streaming down her face.

Right. 

She was in the New World.

She flopped back down onto her pillow and turned over to lay on her side, tears still welling up and falling down her cheeks.

“Tch...” Her lips shivered, pleading to embrace her lover again. She closed her eyes and failed to hold back a soft sob. Another sob followed, and another, and soon she was weeping uncontrollably.

“I-” She tried to speak, but it was difficult to get words out between the sobs, “I’m- So- Sorry...” She pressed her face into the pillow, her tears soaking into it. “I- Didn’t- Mean- To- Leave- You-”

She wept for a while before running out of energy and laying her face against her tear-soaked pillow. She felt hopeless. Lost.

After moping for another few minutes, she finally gathered the strength to rise from her bed and looked at the wall beside her. There, resting against the wall, was a pristine looking acoustic 12-string guitar.

She had experimented a lot with her conjuration magic, and it turns out that she could create any sort of mundane item she wanted. She picked it up and strummed it randomly, going through different chords and rhythms to just add some music to the atmosphere. Everything she played sounded sad - a consequence of her mood.

“I need something...” She said calmly. Playing sad music was a good outlet for her emotions, though it just helped her cope with the feelings, it didn’t get rid of them at all. “Something... Which craving is this...?” She rubbed her forehead trying to figure out what the feeling was. “Food? No... Tea? I want tea.” She started going through all the different types of tea she could conjure, but nothing came to mind that felt like it would satisfy her.

She threw on her dark outfit, skipping the scarf and mask, checked herself in the mirror for puffy eyes or tear streaks, then opened the door. Standing outside were two maids: Narberal and Entoma.

“Ah... Hi.” Shit, did they hear her screaming ‘Maro’? Did they hear her sobbing in there? Her music? Fuck, that didn’t bode well for her disguise as a confident Supreme Being.

“Hello, Lady Akasha.” The cutesy voice of entoma called out as she bowed. Narberal followed suit.

“Any updates you’re aware of?” She didn’t know how long she had slept. Narberal answered,

“Yes. The humans you captured have begun teaching the denizens of Nazarick their languages, and divulging useful information. It would seem each nation has its own official language, but there are other languages that exist within them. There are two common languages used by humans to communicate, so as long as we learn both of those languages, we should be able to travel anywhere and remain undercover.” Narberal continued, providing information on the state of the Slane Theocracy and it’s anti-demihuman doctrine. She explained everything thoroughly and efficiently. 

“Finally, the herbs that the humans of that town gifted you after you graciously saved them have been studied and preserved. There was enough leftover to treat you at your convenience. They appear to be useful as an insect repellant, seasoning, tea, and as a flavor additive.”

“Tea?”

“Yes, my lady.”

“Mm. Then, I’d like some tea using those herbs. Let’s go.”

***

When Narberal and Entoma entered the Staff Canteen, the homunculus maids and Sous-chef beamed with delight, but when they saw Akasha following them, their expressions changed to awe and bliss.

She had done nothing to earn their high opinions of her. Nothing at all. Yet, here they were, praising her like a god, changing their behaviour to cater to her whims, ensuring they were all available to follow commands should she beseech them.

“Bringing the tea to you would have been no problem, my Lady. Are you certain you wish to come yourself?” Narberal asked, tilting her head down to make eye contact with Akasha.

“Yeah, I’m sure. I want it fresh.” Narberal nodded.

“It is my honor to serve you, Akasha-sama!” Sous-chef said, his mushroom head bowed in respect. “What would be your pleasure on this fine day?”

“Uh, I’d like some tea made from those herbs the villagers gave us.” He bowed once more,

“Right away, my Lady!”

Akasha sat at the bar and noticed every single staff member had stopped what they were doing and halted their break to get into a position where they could serve her at a moment’s notice. She sighed internally, trying to not let her emotions get the best of her.

“You know,” She began, addressing everyone in the room, “If my coming here disturbs your breaktime, I’ll stop coming.” Everyone looked up at her with their eyes wide, like she had threatened them with death.

“My Lady, if I may,” Narberal began, “Your presence would never disturb a single creature in all of Nazarick. It is our delight to serve.” Akasha held up her hand in dismissal,

“I understand that, but without taking a full, proper break, your performance will drop. No matter how hard you try, you will never perform your best if you aren’t fully rested. That would be unacceptable, so... continue your breaks normally”

The servants around her all eyed eachother, and after a few moments of shock, they smiled in reverence and continued their breaks. It was still clear that they were taking every measure possible to be within earshot of Akasha and ready to obey her commands, but they at least put on a show like they were taking a break.

That’d have to be good enough.

“Your tea, my Lady.” Sous-chef said nobly, placing the tea in front of her. She looked down at it to see the coloration was dark orange.

“Thank you, Sous-chef.”

“My pleasure.”

She picked it up and carried it over to take a sip, but stopped when it reached her face.

It-...

It smelled like lemons.

Pressure began building up behind her face. Tears were going to start welling up in her eyes any second. She couldn’t let anyone see. She had to keep the facade alive.

“Then...” Her voice was beginning to break, “I will... take this in my room.” And with that, she teleported away.

***

She had taken a few sips, but that was it. She mostly had just stared at it, enjoying the knowledge that its scent was permeating her room. It was a bittersweet feeling.

With the tea close by, she finished a lot of her sketches.

“I wonder if...” She grabbed the sketch of the man from her dream, smiling at her, and weaved a conjuration spell. Holding the original in her left hand, a copy of it appeared in her right hand. She smiled warmly, softly, sadly.

She had drawn several sketches. She was really good at it, too.

One was her little brother. He had always clung to her and she was always protective of him. He was so innocent, such a warm, cheerful person willing to do anything to help even a total stranger. People had taken advantage of him in the past, and they had regretted it whenever she found out. She remembered back when they were younger how he had always been so clumsy and fragile, she had to help him do everything from getting dressed to bathing. He always cried easily, so she would hug him and pet his head, telling him that everything would be okay.

He was only in middle school now. He visited her nearly every day. Well... that was then. He probably had found her by now, whatever was back there waiting for him. She prayed that she was some sort of clone, some copy of her original self, and that the Naomi back home was still alive and able to take care of him.

A tear fell down her face and dropped from her chin onto the carpet below. A tear shed for Kai, her beloved younger brother who she had left alone in that terrible world.

There was a pair of sketches, one of her mother and father, Aiko and Shinji. Their gentleness had rubbed off on Kai. They were always kind and warm to both of them, and had sheltered Naomi during her childhood from the horrors of their world. They never fought, or if they did, it was only ever in private, and it was plain to see that their passion for eachother burned as bright as it did when they first fell in love.

Her father, Shinji, had been the target of a lot of bullying when he was in highschool. Aiko came to his protection, and their friendship blossomed into love. They were highschool sweethearts with nothing but goodness in their souls.

Now, she wondered how they were dealing with her death. Again, she hoped beyond hope that she was nothing but a copy, but the thought of them crying over her death was something she couldn’t bear. 

It wasn’t on purpose. If she could just send them a message, just a single message, it would be to tell them that she didn’t leave them on purpose. It was just an accident. She would tell them to stay strong, to protect Kai, to love him and cherish him, to not let the world pollute his good heart.

A tear from each eye fell from her cheeks onto the carpet below. A tear for her mother, and a tear for her father.

Then there were her friends. She had four of them, and had sketched each one to remember their faces. Tenzo, Hana, Kimiko, and Kosuke.

Tenzo was tall and strong, a man brimming with confidence but with a secret soft spot that he showed his friends.

Hana was shy and reserved around strangers, but when they were alone, she was the loudest one among them.

Kimiko was calm and quiet, the coolest and most popular of them all. Everyone loved her. She was beautiful and smart, and got along well with everyone.

Kosuke was funny and energetic. No matter the situation, he could find a joke to ease the tension. The best thing about him was how tempered his sense of the room was. If a joke wasn’t appropriate, even though it was his instinct to lighten the mood, he would read the room and feel along with everyone else.

She saw them all frequently, and they had a tradition of all getting together every other weekend, even if it was only on the Dive Gear.

How would they take the news of her death? She guessed they would have a toast on one of their weekends, and talk about her. They would cry and laugh, and they would be there for eachother. 

She longed for such affection from a close friend. Momonga was here, and she considered him a close friend, but he was so different now. He was an undead, and he seemed to not only care more about Nazarick than anything else, but even going so far as to enjoy this new life.

She couldn’t blame him. He didn’t have a life back there. He was just surviving. But she did miss her old friend Momonga. This new person was strange and distant.

She shed a tear for each of her friends.

Finally, there was Maro, her beloved. Even back when she met him in highschool he was just a hopeless romantic. She fell for him when he gave her his gas mask after hers broke. He took such a massive, awful risk for just some school acquaintance. He somehow turned out okay, but she never forgot the kindness he showed her that day. Their love was a slow blossom, but by their last year, they were known as the school couple. She was taller than him, but she thought it was more romantic that way.

She shed more tears for Maro. Countless more.

She shook her head, trying to hold back the weeping, and picked up her guitar. She had made a decision. She would write a song. This one would be dedicated to Maro.

She began, and the song was sweet and sad. A song of goodbye, of reminiscing, and of a love that would never fade.

A song of the scent of lemons.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit of a shorter chapter this time, but that's just how it turned out unfortunately, sorry about that.
> 
> If you want to hear the song Akasha wrote, go to Youtube and search "Lemon by Kenshi Yonezu". There's an english version too by Juby Phonic which is a good interpretation of the song.
> 
> I didn't proofread this one except the basic proofreading as I was writing, so sorry for the mistakes. I was getting really emotional writing it and I don't think I could stand to read it again for a while.

**Author's Note:**

> I appreciate that you made it this far, thanks for reading! Leave some feedback and let me know where you would like to see this story go, and ways for me to improve my writing. Comments really help with my motivation. I know I'm not the best, but I hope you enjoy it regardless. ❤


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